Battle in the Sky
by bubblygal92
Summary: Time can be rewritten but not without consequences. When Eleven's life puts one rewrite too many on the timeline, the reset button gets pushed at a crucial point. Goes AU during 'The Night of the Doctor'. Fix-it fic for the Time War, 50th anniversary and Christmas Special with a Doctor x Rose reunion twist.
1. Chapter One

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything, nor do I make any money from it.**

**A/N Hello and welcome to a brand new story! As the summary suggests, it will be a AU and sort-of rewrite of the Time War, the 50th anniversary episode and the Eleventh Doctor's regeneration. Basically it is me denying canon and substituting my own.**

**This first chapter is mostly a rewrite until the very end, but everything after it will be AU based on the hints about the Time War we have got through the show and other theories.**

**Happy Reading!**

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**Chapter One**

When Cass was a young girl, all she could remember was the overwhelming sense of helplessness at her mother's sobs as she told Cass all about her father and how he had died trying to rescue the trapped children in the collapsed school building when Cass had just been a little baby.

That was the thing though. The school would never have collapsed like that if the atmospheric barrier had been holding on Epsilon III. But the barrier had been shattered, the pressure had caused several explosions, particularly in buildings, and countless lives had been lost.

The barrier was rebuilt later, but the damage was done. Epsilon III had officially become a casualty of the Time War. Theirs was a small planet, with not very advanced machinery, and the constant conflicts over the weakened barrier coupled with the Time Lords' destructive delta waves, had left Epsilon III ravaged.

Cass had only waited until she was of legal age, and then she had been eager to leave Epsilon as quickly as possible. She had wanted to be away from it all, see the universe and forget the desolation of Epsilon III, and her mother's neverending sobs.

Though, it seemed like her first voyage was as doomed as her home planet.

"Help me, please. Can anybody hear me?" Cass tried pressing every button on the ship's dash, hoping something or other would work.

The only good it did was having the computer chime back with a request to state the nature of her ailment. It was times like these that Cass remembered the old Earth saying about not trusting any computer you couldn't throw out of a window.

"I'm not injured, I'm crashing. I don't need a doctor," she snapped.

_A clear statement of your symptoms will help us provide the medical practitioner appropriate to your individual needs._

_Screw throwing it out of a window_, thought Cass._ I ought to take it apart with my bare hands and trample on its remains._ "I'm trying to send a distress signal. Stop talking about doctors!" she said.

"I'm a doctor," came a calm voice from behind her, making Cass whirl around in shock. A handsome man in rather battered clothes was leaning casually against the ship's wall, his arms and legs crossed, and a small smile playing on his face. "But probably not the one you're expecting," he added, walking towards her with quick steps. "Where are the rest of the crew?"

For reasons she couldn't place, Cass felt relief seize her heart. Logically, she knew that she ought to be wary of a strange man appearing in her crashing ship but his presence was soothing, not to mention that he could be her only way out of crashing on some obscure planet.

"Teleported off," she answered hastily, realising that he was waiting for her answer.

"But you're still here," he said, looking at her in surprise.

"I teleported them," she said.

"Why you?" he asked, still in that same tone of surprise.

Cass gave a nervous chuckle as she remembered. "Everyone else was screaming," she said.

A broad smile lit up his face. "Welcome aboard," he said, extending his hand to her.

It was such a bizarre thing to say when the ship they were in was clearly about to crash, yet Cass felt the first beginnings of hope as she looked at him. "Aboard what?" she asked.

He grinned quickly. "I'll show you," he said, pulling her to her feet with the hand she placed in his.

"Where are we going?" asked Cass.

"Back of the ship," he answered.

"Why?" asked Cass, knowing that there were no escape pods there, only an empty bulkhead.

"Because the front crashes first. Think it through," he said, like it was obvious. Before they could reach the exit hatch, the doors hissed and snapped shut as the computer signalled that the bulkhead was now sealed.

"Oh, why did you do that?" asked the Doctor, almost like he was used to berating a misbehaving ship.

"Emergency protocols," said Cass, realisation spreading across her face. She could have smacked herself for forgetting something so basic.

The Doctor didn't look too fazed though, as he drew out a sonic device from his jacket and started examining the sealed doors. "What's your name?" he asked her.

"Cass," she answered, thinking it quite odd how he hadn't even asked her name before helping her. It made her wonder what sort of a man he was that he would jump right into saving someone first and then ask their name later, almost as an afterthought.

"You're young to be crewing a gunship, Cass," he said, glancing sideways at her.

He didn't say it derisively like several others before him had. In fact, he sounded like he was genuinely interested. Not for the first time, Cass wondered if she was in some sort of a bizarre limbo with this strange man while the ship had already crashed.

"I wanted to see the universe," she said, a smile lighting up her face as she remembered the ship flying away from Epsilon III. She had felt truly alive for the first time in her life. "Is it always like this?" She wanted to know, because if so then she was signing up for life.

The Doctor's lips quirked up at her tone, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. "If you're lucky," he said, just as the bulkhead door slid open.

It was dark beyond it, but Cass could see a box with Police Public Call Box written on it. A sinking feeling started to overcome her, as her smile slipped from her face.

The Doctor saw the fear on her face, but misjudged the reason behind it. "Don't worry," he assured her. "It's bigger on the inside."

Far from being comforted, Cass flinched violently at his words. "What? Bigger on the inside? Is that what you said?" she asked, stepping away from the box involuntarily.

"Yes," said the Doctor, still not having grasped why she was looking so scared and angry. "Come on, you'll love it."

"Is this a TARDIS?" asked Cass, almost as a final confirmation before she signed her death warrant.

The Doctor finally realised the reason for her fear, and could have smacked himself. Of course she was afraid. Times weren't safe, and getting into any TARDIS meant danger beyond comprehension. But not his TARDIS. He knew Cass would be safe in there. "Yes, but you'll be perfectly safe, I promise you," he said, trying to make her understand.

"Don't touch me!" yelled Cass, violently snatching her hand away from his grip, revulsion rising in her throat at the thought of being touched by someone like him.

"I'm not part of the war," said the Doctor quietly. "I swear to you, I never was."

Cass glared at him in disgust. "You're a Time Lord," she spat.

"Yes, I'm a Time Lord, but I'm one of the nice ones," he said, trying to walk towards her.

Cass retreated back immediately, raising her hands as if to defend herself. "Get away from me!" she yelled.

Despite sympathy welling in his hearts, the Doctor did feel some indignation too. "Well, look on the bright side. I'm not a dalek," he said, hoping that his anger would jolt her into action.

Cass took another step back, as his words did indeed jolt her into action. "Who can tell the difference any more?" she said as she slammed her hand on the deadlock seal button. The door closed between her and the Doctor.

"Cass!" yelled the Doctor, already regretting pushing her.

"It's deadlocked. Don't even try," she shouted.

"Cass, just open the door. I'm trying to help," he begged, hoping she would listen.

"Go back to your battlefield. You haven't finished yet. Some of the universe is still standing," she said, her voice cracking as tears began to flow from her eyes.

"I'm not leaving this ship without you," he said, and for a moment Cass believed him. But then she remembered what she had been taught her whole life, the things she had witnessed, the atrocities committed in the name of a higher form of warfare, and a universe left in shambles.

She straightened up and looked him in the eye through the small glass panel between the doors. "Well, you're going to die right here then," she said. "Best news all day."

The ship kept plummeting and Cass closed her eyes, blocking out the Doctor's screams of her name, and the frantic beeping of the ship's systems. For a few moments, it felt so peaceful again, and then everything got very hot and Cass knew no more.

* * *

The Sisterhood of Karn were watching their Flame grow smaller and smaller as the war raged over their skies. More Time Lords had visited their planet during the years of war than they ever had before. If the universe had not been on the verge of destruction, the Sisterhood would have refused them access to their Elixir.

As it was, they wanted the Time Lords to win this war. Because Karn's survival depended on it, and Ohila, as the current High Priestess, had no intention of letting the Sisterhood perish.

She had made careful demands from the Time Lords in exchange for the Elixir, and had been watching the timelines constantly. One bright shining timeline stood out to her. It belonged to a man who had helped them before, who held great disdain for the Time Lords, and who had carefully stayed away from this war.

As the gunship broke Karn's atmosphere and crashed to the ground, Ohila's eyes brightened in anticipation. "And here he is at last," she said, a smile gracing her stern features. "The man to end it all. My sisters, the Doctor has returned to Karn."

She took a few tentative steps towards the crashed remains of the ship, and saw a man lying unconscious in the wreckage, "We have always known in our bones that one day he would return here. Such a pity he's dead," she said, her voice hard.

"He's not," said one of the younger acolytes standing behind Ohila.

Ohila looked up at her, startled. "Explain yourself," she snapped.

"He's not dead, High Priestess," said the young acolyte, looking scared. "His hearts still beat and his breath is still strong."

"The timelines were wrong," said Ohila's advisor. "The Doctor will never help us, not in the way we require him to."

"Does this mean we shall perish?" asked the young acolyte, terrified.

"Quiet!" snapped Ohila and everyone fell silent. She was gazing at the Doctor's body with a contemplative look in her eyes. "Take him to the temple, and do not speak a word. I shall deal with this."

As the acolytes scrambled to clear the debris off the Doctor, Ohila's advisor leaned in close to her. "What are you planning, High Priestess?"

Ohila took a deep breath. "We know he is not dead, but he remains unaware of the fact," she said shrewdly. "Is his companion still alive?"

"She's severely injured but the Elixir can…"

"No!" said Ohila immediately. "Let her die."

"High Priestess?"

Ohila inhaled deeply. "Let the girl die," she repeated. "Her death serves a noble cause."

"High Priestess," called her young acolyte. "He's waking up."

Ohila made her way to the temple in quick steps and found that her sisters had the Doctor propped up against the altar. "Quick, fetch the potions," she ordered as the sisters picked up a goblet each and stood quietly in the shadows, praying that Ohila's plan would succeed.

The Doctor was twitching slightly now, his mouth forming silent, incoherent words until a name escaped his lips loudly and clearly as he woke up. "Cass!"

Ohila crouched in front of him. "If you refer to your companion, she's almost certainly dead. No one could survive that crash."

The Doctor looked away at that. "She wasn't my companion," he said. "And I did survive this," he pointed out almost absently as if his mind was elsewhere.

"No," said Ohila, standing up again. "We restored you to life, but it's a temporary measure. You have a little under four minutes."

"Four minutes? That's ages. What if I get bored, or need a television, couple of books? Anyone for chess? Bring me knitting," he said in the same dispassionate tone.

Ohila felt a flash of anger which she tried to tamp down. "You have so little breath left. Spend it wisely," she warned.

His eyes finally focused on his surroundings and a sardonic smile graced his face. "Hang on. Is it you?" he peered at Ohila as he pushed himself to his feet using the altar for support. "Am I back on Karn? You're the Sisterhood of Karn, Keepers of the Flame of utter boredom," he added derisively.

"Eternal life," corrected Ohila, swelling with anger.

"That's the one," he said, still unable to keep the mocking tone from his voice.

"Mock us if you will, but our elixir can trigger your regeneration, bring you back. Time Lord science is elevated here on Karn," she said, bringing the matter to point and the whole reason for this charade. "The change doesn't have to be random. Fat or thin, young or old, man or woman?" she fired off, nodding towards various potions being held by her sisters.

The Doctor appraised her sharply. "Why would you do this for me?" he asked, unconvinced.

Ohila had prepared for that question. "You have helped us in the past," she said.

It didn't appease him. If anything, his eyes narrowed even further. "You were never big on gratitude," he said.

"The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords threatens all reality," said Ohila. "You are the only hope left."

"It's not my war. I will have no part of it," he said as if it was a firm, unshakeable fact.

"You can't ignore it forever," said Ohila sharply.

"I help where I can. I will not fight," he said, anger radiating off him in degrees.

"Because you are the good man, as you call yourself?" It was Ohila's turn to be mocking.

"I call myself the Doctor," he said.

"It's the same thing in your mind," she pointed out with an almost palpable sense of triumph in her tone.

"I'd like to think so," nodded the Doctor.

Ohila smiled bitterly, as if he had said just the right thing. "In that case, Doctor, attend your patient," she said as Cass' body was brought into the temple and laid out on the altar by the sisters.

The Doctor moved at once, scanning her with his screwdriver, hoping for any signs of life. He heard Ohila muttering something about him wasting his time, but all he could see was the eager girl who had wanted to see the universe.

He must have said the last part out loud, for he heard Ohila respond. "She didn't miss much. It's very nearly over," she said harshly.

"I could have saved her," said the Doctor, feeling regret and sorrow fill his hearts. "I could have got her off, but she wouldn't listen." He tried to remember if his time senses had picked up on anything on her life, but all he could remember was a badge of honour for leading the settlement on one of the most progressive colony planets. _It had been her future_, he realised and then winced when he remembered that it had been cruelly snatched from her before she'd had a chance to fulfil it.

She had been right to hate him, but she should never had died. This war should never had happened but it was happening and he had a part to play. He looked at Ohila and then at the sisters holding the potions. No doubt one of them would possess an elixir to trigger a regeneration that could bear to fight and win the war.

Ohila must have seen his resolve wavering, since she nodded towards the potions again. "Fast or strong, wise or angry. What do you need now?" she asked, nearly desperate in her plea.

The Doctor looked up at her with a gaze as firm as he ever bestowed on anyone. "No," he said.

Ohila seemed taken aback. "No?" she asked. "What do you mean, Doctor?"

"I mean, no," he said, feeling his strength and resolve building.

"Doctor, we stand on the brink of destruction and the end of the universe as we know it," argued Ohila, as if trying to make him understand.

"No," he said, and his voice was like a whip cracking through the silence. "Because this is what I am going to do. I am going to fight in the war, but not as someone stronger, faster, wiser or anything else that you think will make of me. I will fight this war, just as I have every war in my very long lives. I shall fight this war as the Doctor."

"Do you really think a good man can fight a war such as this?" asked Ohila, realising that her plan was falling apart. "Surely a warrior would…"

"The war has too many warriors already," said the Doctor as he looked down at Cass' body. "It is time for me to do my duty, Ohila. What this war needs, is a Doctor."

"Doctor…"

"She deserves a proper burial," said the Doctor, interrupting whatever she was about to say. His mind was made up and as soon as Cass was put to rest, he would willingly walk into the battlefields.

Ohila was quiet but the sisters were looking scared as they exchanged glances. "Very well," she said finally. "We shall see that she finds peace, Doctor."

The Doctor nodded and bowed his head. "Cass, I apologise," he murmured quietly. "But I promise you, this war shall end. I shall end it. For you, and everyone in the universe like you. Farewell, my dear Cass, it is time for you to rest."

His hand squeezed hers briefly before he turned around abruptly and left the temple with quick steps. Outside, he could see the crashed gunship in the distance. As he got closer to it, he realised that his TARDIS was unharmed and standing tall amidst the destruction. The Doctor's steps quickened and he nearly ran all the way back though his feet came to a skidding halt when he realised that there was someone standing next to his TARDIS.

It was a young blonde woman.

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**A/N Alright, end of Chapter 1. Let me know what it was like.**

**I anticipate this being around 25-30 chapters and a bit sombre than my usual stuff. Hope you enjoy it just the same. The next chapter will be up soon.**


	2. Chapter Two

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything, nor do I get paid for it.**

**A/N Thank you for the wonderful response on the first chapter. Chapter Two has Rose's side of the story. **

**Warning for mentions of character death. Sorry, they were necessary.**

**Happy Reading!**

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**Chapter Two**

Rose Tyler crouched in the shadows as she made her way through the half-destroyed city. Night was falling rapidly and she still needed an hour before the vortex manipulator could garner enough power for her to make the jump away from this planet. Her last trip to Calpurnia had done a number on it and it took longer and longer for it to charge nowadays. If it hadn't been for the TARDIS coral bits having enhanced it, it would have given out years ago.

A cold gust of wind made her shiver and she drew her coat closer, tucking her hands into her armpits for warmth. The hood of her knee-length black coat did a good job of keeping her dark gold hair hidden. Locals on this planet rarely had hair this fair and she wanted to avoid attracting the wrong sort of attention.

Her steps faltered when she nearly tripped over a familiar eye-stalk. Being careful to step over it, Rose kept walking through the shadows, feeling the back of her neck buzz. She was being followed.

Rose's speed remained unchanged, though she straightened up almost imperceptibly. Whoever was following her, was definitely not a dalek. She would be dead by now if it was. It could be one of the locals who would have looked at her expensive coat and assumed that she would be a good target for robbery. However, the footsteps behind her sounded sloppy in a way of a rather lost soul following her.

Rose rounded the corner and hid behind a large bin. The person following her turned as well but stopped in confusion when they couldn't find Rose. From her hiding place, Rose looked at the silhouette of the person and determined that it was actually a small child. A little girl, judging by the torn skirt and long, straggly brown hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks.

She couldn't have been older than six and Rose was certain that she wasn't armed. After a quick debate with herself, Rose left her hiding place and approached the girl.

The girl gasped in surprise and took a few steps back when she saw Rose. "You must leave," she told Rose, recovering from her shock rather quickly.

"Why?" asked Rose, surprised by the urgency in her tone.

"You are not from here. You have to leave before the daleks find you," said the girl.

Rose stared at the girl for a moment. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Zara," said the girl.

"Zara, my name's Rose. So, why were you following me?" she asked.

Zara looked down at the ground. "I thought you were Becca," she said in a small voice.

"Who's Becca?" asked Rose.

"She's my friend. She looks after me and the other kids down at the shelter," said Zara.

Rose took in Zara's torn clothes and dishevelled appearance, and realised that she was a child living in the streets in a society torn apart by war. Compassion welled in her heart and she knelt in front of her. "Is Becca missing?" asked Rose.

Zara's eyes filled with tears and she looked down. "She usually comes back before the first sun sets," she said, and Rose knew that the first sun had set a few hours ago. "I have to find Becca. If she's gone then we won't have anyone."

"Sshh, it's okay," said Rose, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder. "We'll find her, yeah?"

Zara started shaking her head violently. "No, no, you can't. If the daleks find you, they'll kill you," she said.

Rose smiled reassuringly at her. "I'm not leaving you alone when there are dalek patrols around," she said firmly. "Come on, let's find Becca."

Zara looked heartened and nodded at Rose. With a wider smile, Rose stood up and tucked Zara's hand into hers as they left the dark alley together. Night had fallen completely by then, and distant cries of daleks seeking out survivors and killing them could be heard echoing around them.

Rose could feel Zara trembling with fear, though she tried to hide it well. They walked along the path that Zara said Becca took so she could bring food for the children at the shelter. A series of quick questions determined that Zara was one of the older children at the shelter, hence why she had been the one to venture out. Rose shuddered to think how they were coping if a six year old was taking on such a grave responsibility.

"They take us when we turn 12," Zara told her calmly. "Becca's 14 but she ran away."

Rose swallowed back her revulsion as she listened to that. The daleks taking the children and turning them into slave labour for their own purposes was one of the most horrifying things she had heard. She shouldn't have been surprised really, the daleks were notorious for enslaving the population after they had invaded a planet and it really didn't matter that this was a parallel universe. Daleks were the same across the multiverse.

As they passed a dilapidated building, there was a light beep which made Zara jump violently. "Don't worry," said Rose hastily. "It's just my instrument."

Zara looked at the vortex manipulator on her wrist and then back at Rose. "Does this mean you are leaving?" she asked.

"Not until I know you are safe," said Rose firmly, as if there was no question of it.

Zara looked slightly happier but then her grip on Rose's hand tightened. "I see Becca," she whispered.

Rose followed her gaze and felt her heart freeze. Becca was standing in the middle of the street, with two daleks blocking her way. There was nowhere to run and she would surely be killed right there.

Making a quick decision, Rose pushed Zara into the closest alleyway. "Stay here and don't move," she told her.

Zara looked terrified as she crouched on the ground, clutching her knees to her chest. Rose dug into her pockets and drew out the compact laser deluxe. She rarely used it, but kept it on her person just the same. A quick change of the setting from 'stun' to 'kill', and Rose was ready as she emerged out in the street.

"Oi, you lot!" she shouted and the daleks turned around as one. Without wasting time, Rose aimed and shot the eyestalk off the first dalek.

It wailed loudly and Rose ducked into the shadows quickly before the other one could shoot her. Adrenaline pumping in her veins, she recharged the power on her gun as the dalek started approaching her. Setting the power to max, she aimed right at its gun and shot it. Unlike the dalek before, this dalek exploded loudly, killing even the actual creature inside the dalekanium shell. Rose aimed her gun against the dalek whose vision had been compromised and proceeded to blow it up.

With the two daleks destroyed, she saw Zara run out to Becca and the two girls embraced each other tightly.

"We have to move," Rose told them , stashing her gun away. "Before more of them show up."

Becca looked at her with gratitude in her eyes. "Thank you so much," she said.

"Thank me later," said Rose as she urged the girls along. "Come on, hurry!"

They ran all the way back to the shelter which was an underground bunker with a sturdy vault door as its entrance. It really was no match for the daleks but the secrecy of its location made it the best hiding spot.

Rose watched as Becca and Zara climbed down into the bunker. They invited her in, but Rose knew that she had to leave this planet soon. Already, she could feel a headache building. Experience had taught her that as soon as she started getting that headache, she had to go away at once.

The girls were disappointed but Rose dug into her pockets for whatever food and supplies she had with her and gave it to them. It would stop them from having to venture out for a week at the very least.

After making sure that the bunker was secure, Rose randomised the coordinates and left the planet at once. She hadn't even learned the name of the place, she realised, as the loud cheerful chatter of the marketplace nearly knocked her over.

"Miss, are you alright?" the friendly store vendor asked her.

Rose mustered up a small smile and nodded. It looked like she had arrived on Trenzalore again. It was remarkable how many times she landed here. Any more, and she would have to set up a semi-permanent base here, like the one she had in the Swiss Alps. Her Doctor had teased her about her fondness for places with snow, and Trenzalore was just another planet with a rather snowy temperament. The sun only rose for a couple of minutes and turned the planet into a glorious golden ball of light before it would go dark again.

Thinking of Trenzalore brought a sad smile to her face. It was rather apt for her and the Doctor. Her time travelling with the Doctor had been like that brief minutes of sunlight on Trenzalore. Canary Wharf had cast a shadow so dark that it took years for the sun to rise again. When it eventually rose, it was more glorious than ever and the hand in hers would have been hers to hold for the rest of their human lives.

But then the shadows had come back darker than ever, and the sun had never risen again. Seventy eight years, four months and twelve days had passed since the Doctor's death, but not a single moment passed when she didn't miss him dearly. The wedding ring had stayed resolutely on her finger even though they had only been married for about six years before the metacrisis had overwhelmed his brain.

A Time Lord consciousness could not be sustained in a brain that was as human as his. His memories were the first to go and towards the end, he could barely even recognise Rose. She had stayed by his side until the very end when his eyes had brightened with the familiar spark for only a moment before his single heart gave up.

His memory sparked the familiar anger and sadness in her heart again. Rose had a lot to be angry about, but she could never decide who she was more angry at: the Metacrisis Doctor for dying, the Time Lord Doctor for abandoning them, herself for being a fool, Torchwood for being far more sinister than she had anticipated, or the universe in general for taking away everything she ever loved from her. Most days, the anger and resentment slept in the back of her mind but after a particularly bad experience like she'd just had, it became more and more difficult for her to maintain her calm.

It was no wonder then, that she wasn't paying attention when the first lot of air attacks started firebombing the marketplace on Trenzalore. The screams of the people around her and the heat from the burning stalls knocked her out of her reverie and she sprang into action. Before she could do more than analyse the extent of the damage, she saw the attacker's ship in the sky.

The familiar saucer-shaped ship made an angry growl escape her lips. Fucking daleks again. They had been on the last three planets that she had visited. If Rose had been more paranoid, she would have thought that they were after her.

But the daleks had been stirring in this universe very soon after her Doctor's death. It was as if they were pouring in from an unexplained leak somewhere, and destroying nearly every planet in the sky. Rose knew that they were invading all over time and space, but the how and why had eluded her for nearly eight decades.

And then there were her headaches. Everytime she thought about interfering, she would get slight twinges that would pass soon enough. But the other sort of headaches would be enough to knock her out if she didn't stop her interference and leave at once. The only thing she could conclude was that whatever was preventing her from aging was also acting as a warning system of when she could interfere and when she should leave well enough alone.

She waited for the familiar painful headaches to start but her head stayed clear and she was still steady on her feet. Rose was surprised. Dalek presence usually meant that the headaches would be near-blinding. A grim smile crossed her face. It looked like it was time to get answers, whatever they might be.

With a determined look upon her face, Rose walked out of the destroyed marketplace and towards the fields where the Dalek ships were starting to land. The doors opened and ramps touched the ground as daleks began to descend onto the planet's surface. People screamed and ran for cover, knowing all too well what the daleks were truly capable of.

Rose was half tempted to just walk in, guns blazing and all, and let the chips fall where they may. Not like she had much to stay alive for, and if she managed to take out these daleks with her then at least her death would have meant something. But then her rational side kicked her anger back into the recesses of her mind and Rose allowed herself to calm down. She was being stupid and suicidal, and she was neither of those things. The daleks had to be stopped, but she would do her damndest to make sure that she did it the right away and not through a reckless gamble of her life.

The fields of Trenzalore that had been covered with white snow just mere minutes ago, were charred due to the firebombs and the dalek spaceships landing. But the strange thing was, the daleks hadn't started killing the locals yet. They had descended from their spaceships and were moving their eye stalks and plungers around, as if scanning for something.

Rose wondered briefly who or what they were searching for, when they turned abruptly and went in the direction of the tower. Rose had heard rumours about the tower on her numerous visits to Trenzalore. They said that a truth field existed around the tall structure which activated as soon as one stepped through the gates. The gates forever remained closed, and only opened briefly during a two-day festival.

She had never landed in a time of festivities so she really had no idea what was so important about the tower. It looked like it had been abandoned for years, and been left to fall apart.

"YOU!"

Rose went still when she realised that she had stayed in one hiding place for too long, and been found. She turned around slowly and saw the dalek right in front of her. Long buried fear of those creatures reared its head and her hands shook as she raised them to her sides.

"DETE-CTING PRE-SENCE OF AR-TRON RADIATION!" announced the dalek as soon as it scanned her.

Her trembling became worse. She hated those words and could still hear them in her nightmares as clinical voices assessed the artron radiation level before the next needle would…

"YOU WILL COME WITH US."

Rose glanced behind her and realised that the entire dalek fleet had surrounded her. There was no way she would be able to take them all out. Yet she was curious about why they hadn't killed her. They needed her alive but she doubted it was for anything good, judging from past experiences. With a small nod, she started following the daleks as they moved towards the tower.

As they got closer to the gate, Rose started to feel dizzy like she never had before. Having lived for as long as she had, new physical sensations were extremely rare and she felt her step falter in shock rather than pain.

"MOVE!" The dalek ordered.

"Alright!" she yelled as she tried to calm her breathing, wishing the world would stop spinning.

"THE FE-MALE'S HEARTBEAT HAS INCREASED."

Rose resisted the urge to growl in anger. What was with everything reminding her of that day? Wasn't it enough that she had lived it in her nightmares for years and years?

"THE TRUTH BARRIER IS AFFECTING THE FEMALE."

"You know, the female is standing right here," she snapped, trying very hard not to rub at her forehead.

The daleks ignored her as one of them fired off a single bolt to break open the lock on the gate. The doors swung open and the daleks as one turned to her.

"YOU WILL ENTER."

"Why?" asked Rose, annoyed. "Why don't you go in first?"

"YOU WILL OBEY!"

Throwing a dark glare at the daleks, Rose started walking towards the gate. With each step she took, her vision became foggier and she was nearly about to collapse when everything cleared at once. Eyes widening with surprise, she looked around and realised that she stepped past the gate into the small yard in front of the tower.

The daleks came in after her, eye stalks analysing every inch of their surroundings. Rose took the chance to talk to the dalek that had been ordering her about. His red exterior, different from the grey of the others, proclaimed him to be in charge. "So, what is it that you wanted to get in here for?" she asked.

The dalek's eye stalk turned towards her and Rose met the stare unwaveringly. "THIS PLACE HAS BEEN IDEN-TIFIED AS A WEAK SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL POINT," he said.

Rose's eyebrows shot up. It had been years since she had heard that term, not since her dimension cannon days at least. "And why are we here?" she asked.

"YOU WILL OPEN THE GATE-WAY."

"What gateway?" asked Rose warily.

"THE GATEWAY TO THE PRIME UNIVERSE."

"What makes you think I can open it?" she asked, feeling her heart starting to race.

"THE ART-RON ENERGY IN YOUR PHYSIO-GNOMY WILL ALLOW YOU TO OPEN THE GATE-WAY."

"You mean you want to use me to create a gap in the void so you lot can go into the other universe. In other words, you will kill me," said Rose, in a matter-of-fact tone as the truth field did its work.

"CORRECT."

"Well, that's not going to happen," she said, a smile twisting her lips. "I'd rather die than unleash you upon a whole other universe."

"YOUR CO-OPERATION IS NOT NECE-SSARY!"

"What do you mean? I'm not moving from here. You got that?" she asked, eyes blazing in anger. "You'd have to kill me first."

"YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED REGARDLESS."

Rose stopped short at that, though it wasn't easy. It seemed like the truth field was compelling her to speak, so she pressed her lips together lest she start babbling about the Doctor or something. It looked like the truth field was affecting the daleks too, and it just confirmed her suspicions that whatever she did, they would kill her.

She racked her brain quickly, trying to think something, anything, that would stop them. Her life didn't matter at this point, all that mattered was that the daleks wouldn't survive. This would end right here on Trenzalore.

With a start, she remembered the failsafe that had been built into her vortex manipulator. It had been added almost as an afterthought, and Rose had no idea if it would even work. But she had to try, because she was out of options and there was nothing else she could do.

"Fine," she said, choosing her words carefully lest the truth field give her intent away. "Lead the way."

The daleks started moving towards the tower again and Rose put her hands behind her head to show them that she had surrendered. Praying with every fibre of her being that she was typing in the code correctly into her vortex manipulator, Rose closed her eyes as her button hovered over the 'confirm' button.

"HALT! WE HAVE BEEN DECEIVED!"

_Well, it was a good life_, Rose decided and pressed the button. The resulting explosion burned bright and golden, and the daleks screamed in agony as they perished.

Rose could feel the heat behind her eyelids, and her wrist with the vortex manipulator felt like it had melted off her body. The pain was excruciating, coursing through her like every form of torture inflicted all at once. It seemed like it kept happening for years and years, and Rose couldn't even hear her own screams when she finally hit the ground with a thud.

_That's it_, she thought to herself. _It's over_.

But she was still breathing and the heat was dying down as she returned slowly to her own mind. The air around her felt different, yet so familiar at the same time and Rose knew that she wasn't in Pete's world anymore. Her wrist seemed to be buzzing and she realised just what that hum was.

Keeping her eyes closed lest she was wrong, Rose flexed her fingers and toes experimentally. She braced herself for the pain but there was none. Slowly, she placed her palms on the rough ground beneath her and pushed herself into a sitting position. Her eyes still stayed close, but more for keeping herself from feeling dizzy this time. The feeling passed and Rose slowly got to her feet, wobbling only a little.

Her hand stretched out blindly in front of her looking for some support while her legs tried to stay in place, and she encountered the smooth (yet with just enough roughness) wood beneath her fingers. A smile pulled at her lips as tears pricked her eyes with the realisation of where she was.

Being mindful of keeping her emotions in check, Rose opened her eyes slowly and gave a cry of surprise when they confirmed what her other senses had told her already. She was standing next to the TARDIS, actually the TARDIS, and in the right universe.

Emotions exploded inside her as happiness, excitement, relief and joy warred with anger, sadness, resentment and feelings of abandonment. The tears began to flow in earnest, and Rose made no move to stop them. She had no idea how long she cried for, it could have been hours or minutes, yet when her tears finally dried, Rose realised that she now had to face the Doctor.

She was trying to prepare herself for it when she heard footsteps behind her. Gathering every bit of self-restraint that she had cultivated over the years to slip her face into a mask of neutrality, Rose wiped the tear marks off her face and turned to face the Doctor.

Only to see a face she had never seen before.

* * *

**A/N End of Chapter Two. Thanks for reading.**

**The Doctor and Rose interact with each other in the next chapter. That's bound to be interesting. It will be up soon. Let me know how this one was.**


	3. Chapter Three

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything, nor do I make any money from it.**

**A/N Thanks for the wonderful response on the last chapter. Here we are at last, as the Doctor and Rose finally meet. Things are discussed.**

**I have also started uploading my stories on AO3 and Teaspoon, in case you prefer to read it there. There's a link on my profile.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Three**

The Doctor was in shock, not just because of the sudden arrival of this woman, but the state that she was in. Trousers torn around the knees and calves, black coat in tatters on her torso, and dishevelled blonde hair framing a face streaked with dirt, soot, and unless he was mistaken, hastily wiped tears.

Then his eyes saw past the physical appearance and he took an involuntary step back. Everything in his instincts said that she was a human but he had never seen a human like her. He didn't know what she was, just that she was either the most dangerous thing in the universe, or perhaps the most beautiful. He couldn't decide which yet.

He drew some comfort from the fact that she looked just as shocked to see him as he did her. That was good at least, she hadn't been sent to kill him. Because he knew she could, and with very little effort if she wanted to.

Rather abruptly, he straightened his posture and fixed her with a steely look. Just because she was shocked, didn't mean that she meant him no harm. Times were dangerous and there would be many a people who would want him dead. Or it could be the Sisterhood themselves, since apparently they had tried to convince him to regenerate when he wasn't actually dying. Perhaps, he ought to…

"Doctor?"

His stance faltered at the vulnerability under the veneer of calm that her voice projected. "Can I help you?" he asked, doing his best to sound as gentle as he could.

Somehow, it had the opposite effect on her. Usually that tone of his calmed people down, but she suddenly straightened up, her gaze fierce and quite a bit angry. "Evidently not," she said, and the anger being directed at him made him flinch a little.

He was about to demand that she explain herself when his gaze was drawn to the hand that she was resting on his TARDIS. On her wrist was a cobbled together old space hopper, but the glowing bits on top of it he would recognise anywhere. With two steps, he walked up to her and seized her wrist as if to make sure that his eyes weren't deceiving him.

"What do you think you're doing?" she yelled furiously, trying to shake his grip on her wrist.

He dropped her hand, though he remained right where he was. "Where did you get that?" he demanded.

"None of your business," she snapped. "It's obvious that you don't know who I am which means I can't tell you even if I wanted to."

"I don't give out my TARDIS coral like candy to strangers," he said, sounding quite furious. _Why would he tear a piece of his TARDIS apart like this? Unless, he hadn't and his TARDIS had been harvested…_

"Is that what you did then? Killed me and tore my TARDIS apart to enhance your little space hopper?" he demanded.

She looked at him like he was mad. "I would never hurt her like that," she said angrily. "You gave it to me, you egotistical, selfish alien git."

He abruptly stepped back at that. Not only had she addressed his TARDIS like a person, but she had sounded sincere when she had told him that he had been the one to give her that. He nodded slowly, showing that he believed her and was relieved when she relaxed a little too. "So, you are from my future?" he asked, doing his best to keep his voice calm as he wondered what his future self was playing at, sending whoever she was in the middle of a warzone. Especially in Kasterborous.

"Yes," she said, and almost involuntarily her hand went to the ring on her finger that he hadn't completely focused on yet. "We got separated, different universes and all. I wasn't exactly planning on returning," she added defensively. "It just sort of happened."

His brow furrowed in confusion. "That makes no sense whatsoever," he said. "I understand that parallel universes have been sealed out to stop the war spilling into different universes but surely if you are from the future, they have been opened by now."

She was looking at him with wide, horrified eyes. "The war? What war?" she asked, as if she already knew the answer.

For an almost absurd second, he wanted to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of that question. No one asked that question anymore. It was just the one war now. Every higher life form knew it was happening, and even the lower life forms were aware that something was not quite right with the universe. But then her horror registered with him. She was from the future, hence she knew exactly what had happened. He had been right about her being dangerous, but not for the reasons he had thought of before. She was dangerous because she knew too much. She knew the way it ended.

She seemed to have realised the same and she looked terrified for the first time since he had seen her. "I have to go," she said slowly.

"You can't," he said.

She looked at him like he was mad. "Have you lost it? I can't be here, don't you understand?" she asked.

He sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "I understand perfectly," he said. "I didn't mean you shouldn't, I meant you cannot leave. The entire constellation of Kasterborous is existing in a time lock. No one can travel beyond it. It was one of the first things that the Council did to stop the war from spreading."

"What about my vortex manipulator? Can't it…?" she asked.

"No. In fact, unless I'm mistaken, it has already broken down," he said.

She looked at him in shock and then started pressing the buttons on the vortex manipulator frantically, until she realised he was right.

"Time travel isn't permitted for anyone who doesn't have a TARDIS, and even then you cannot leave the time lock," he said. "I am sorry."

She slumped a little, and he realised that she looked exhausted. His eyes flicked between the TARDIS coral parts on her wrist and his ship, and he finally understood how she had bypassed the sealed universes to arrive there. A sharp gasp escaped him, and she looked up at him inquiringly.

"Won't you come in?" he asked, doing his best to sound calm.

She looked at him in confusion. "Is that really wise?" she asked.

"Wiser than us standing out here," he said as he walked up to the TARDIS doors.

"May I?" she asked as he went to unlock it.

He glanced back at her in surprise, and saw the glimmer of excitement in her golden brown eyes. Funny how he hadn't noticed them before, but now he found himself quite unable to look away. "Of course," he said almost reflexively, and he realised it was worth it when the excitement in her eyes grew.

She stepped around him, unaware that his eyes had locked onto her like a magnet, and drew out a key on a silver chain from around her neck. It wasn't quite the right key, this ordinary Yale key in her hand, but it slid in just the same and the lock turned under it. A rather enchanting smile lit up her face as she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

For a moment, he wished his old interior had still been there. He knew she would have loved it. But he had got rid of it a while ago, in a time that he didn't remember with much fondness. The interior now was much like the older, bare white ones that he had preferred when he had been younger. Except he had kept the cavernous quality of the console room, and some of the roundels had golden light filtering through them. A few cables had come loose, and were hanging over their heads but he had done his best to loop them around so it looked like it was part of her charm rather than him avoiding fixing it up.

He was about to turn to her and let loose the barrage of questions on his mind, but they got stuck in his throat when he looked at her. She was standing utterly still, with a smile on her face, and tears flowing down her cheeks. One of her hands rested on the time rotor and he could have sworn the old girl sounded a little brighter in his head.

"It's Rose," she said, after a few moments of silence. "Rose Tyler, that's my name."

He smiled a little at that. "Nice to meet you, Rose Tyler," he said.

She turned to him, and her eyes sparkled with laughter. "So I have heard," she said and it occurred to him that he might have said that the first time he met her. Before he could try and think of a response to that, Rose let her smile drop and crossed her arms in front of her. "Why didn't you ever say that we had met now?" she asked.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, glad that he had kept it shorter rather than the poncey style that he had regenerated with. "There are two explanations for it. One, it technically hasn't happened yet which means that my older self will not remember this. It's a basic temporal sense in every Time Lord. Keeps us from getting into a lot of trouble," he explained.

"What's the other one?" asked Rose.

"We are in a time lock," he said, matter-of-factly. "Everything we do here is happening all over time and at the same time."

Her brow furrowed. "What's that mean?" she asked. "No, you know what? It's fine. So, it's not exactly dangerous if we talk about the future right?"

He sighed again, and sounded much more reluctant to answer this time. "It's why I invited you inside, apart from the fact you look like you could use a cup of tea that is," he said, and watched as her lips quirked up into a little smile. "You know how this war ends, and I know that time is in flux and everything, but I will ask only one thing of you, Rose Tyler. Never, no matter how much I beg, plead, threaten and ask, never ever tell me how this war ends," he said, speaking slowly and clearly as if wanting to make absolutely certain that she understood.

She raised her eyebrows at his tone. "Wouldn't have done it anyway," she said. "What if you try to change something and end up making it worse?"

"That is exactly why I am telling you," he said, glad that she understood.

"So, at what point exactly did we establish that I am coming with you?" she asked, tilting her head towards him in question.

"I realise I have no right to make your decisions for you, Rose," he said. "But with what you know, you would be the safest with me. Not everyone in this war will be prepared to take my view of remaining ignorant of the future. Hell, even my previous self would have demanded every bit of information you possess. I can take you to one of the safe zones and keep you there. Like a witness protection program."

"No," said Rose.

"No?" he repeated incredulously.

"You're not putting me in some safe zone like a china doll. I'm coming with you," she said determined.

"I am walking into the most dangerous war this cosmos has ever seen. I am not taking you in there with me," he said sternly.

"Well, tough, 'cos I am stayin' right here," she said. "And she'll back me on this one," she added, jabbing her thumb towards the rotor.

She was probably right, but he wasn't going to let her know that. "Rose, if you do this, I cannot guarantee your survival. Think of what you would be leaving behind. Think of your husband," he said, with a pointed look at her ring. "Doesn't he need you?"

For a moment, it looked like she was going to slap him but then her shoulders started shaking and hysterical laughter burst from her lips. "You...you...oh my god…" she gasped, tears rolling from her eyes.

He crossed his arms, rather taken aback at her reaction. He waited patiently for her to finish laughing, and answer him. "Something funny?" he asked casually.

She chuckled and wiped off the tears from her face. "I hate the universe sometimes," she said quietly and he wasn't sure if he was meant to hear that. She smiled at him and shrugged almost too casually. "Haven't got anyone," she said. "Mum, dad and brother are dead. My husband died even before that. Can't have any kids. Not exactly got much to lose."

"I'm sorry," he said, automatically though he felt his hearts sink. With the TARDIS coral given to her, and the sparkle in her eyes that he had seen only briefly, he had just assumed that maybe they were...but they clearly weren't since she talked about being separated from him by a universe, not by death. He really shouldn't feel disappointed by it, but it looked like he couldn't help it.

Her eyes softened as she smiled more genuinely at him rather than the bitter smile that was worse than a grimace. "Doctor, believe me, there is nowhere else better for me than here. I can help, I have been doing that for a while now. You said it yourself, this war is the worst thing to ever happen to the cosmos. You're going to stop it, I know you are, but you can't do it on your own. Let me help. Please," she said.

He stared at her stunned, wondering how she knew just the right thing to say. As reluctant he was to take her into war, he could see the hardened soldier in her and knew that she was an asset. Besides, it always felt better when you had someone with you. "Better with two, eh?" he asked, feeling an odd ripple pass over him that made him wonder if they'd had this sort of a conversation in the future.

She grinned brightly at him, a truly beautiful smile that was tinged with only a little sadness. "Better with two," she agreed.

He smiled back at her and nodded. "Very well then," he said. "You must want to get cleaned up, I expect. And a change of clothes."

She looked down at herself, and nodded quickly. "I won't take long. Just give me a few minutes," she said.

"No matter, take your time," he said. She turned to go, and he called out to her again. "Rose?"

"Yeah?" she asked, turning back.

"This may seem like an odd request," he said shyly. "But could I have a hug?" Her eyes went wide as she stared at him with her mouth open. He clarified himself hastily. "I failed to save a young woman from a crashing spaceship today. She is being laid to rest as we speak. But if you'd rather…"

Rose was in front of him with quick steps, and had wrapped her arms around him before he could finish. He hugged her back gladly, holding onto her like a lifeline. The hug lasted for several long moments, and he could feel her single heart beating madly as she buried her face in his shoulder. He stroked her hair almost tentatively, as if afraid that she would pull away if he pushed it too far.

Finally, Rose loosened her grip on him and the Doctor let go of her slowly, his hands lingering in her hair as they pulled away. He could see the tears in her eyes but she seemed to be smiling as she turned to go further into the TARDIS to freshen up.

As soon as she was gone, the Doctor let his smile drop and held up the single golden hair that he had managed to pluck from her head.

It was time to see exactly what Rose Tyler was.

* * *

**A/N End of Chapter Three. What did you think?**

**So, yeah the trust is yet to be established. Also, the Doctor seems adamant to keep the knowledge of the future hidden. Wonder how long that will last.**

**The next chapter will be up soon. See you then!**


	4. Chapter Four

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own any of it, nor do I get paid for it.**

**A/N Thanks for the lovely response on the last chapter. Can't believe the story is nearing 100 reviews already. Seriously, your response keeps me writing.**

**This chapter starts out with a light-hearted adventure.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Four**

Rose was still in a bit of a daze as she walked through the corridor, hoping the TARDIS would point her in the right direction. For all her anger and resentment towards him, Rose would be lying if she said that she had never wanted to see the Doctor again. But she had never expected to end up here of all places.

But perhaps it would be a good thing, she decided, as she saw a solitary wood panelled door at the end of the corridor. This was the worst time in the Doctor's life, and if nothing else she could be a friend and his hand to hold. Her Doctor didn't talk a lot about the war but Rose had been there when the inevitable nightmares would sneak up on him. Anything she could do to make sure to reduce that pain he would feel, she was willing to do.

She opened the door, and was a bit surprised to find a brand new room beyond it. Good thing too, since Rose didn't think she would be that fond of her old room especially without all her things in it. Or perhaps, even if they were there by some quirk of time and space, she would still be uncomfortable with all her memories in there.

This new room was almost the same size as her old room, and had parchment coloured walls and dark rosewood furniture. The duvet and sheets on the bed were a deep shade of red that matched the carpet on the floor. The ensuite was much the same as before, but with unidentifiable labels on the bottles of shampoo and soap.

Rose knew that TARDIS wouldn't give her something that she would be allergic to or anything, so she set about shedding her clothes and stepping into the shower. As she stood under the spray, she took a moment to analyse her injuries. There were light scratches on her calves but they had already turned pink and would heal in their own time. Her shoulders felt stiff, though a few moments under the warm spray of water worked wonders.

The worst injury was her wrist with the vortex manipulator. There was a long, ugly scar spanning around her wrist, that looked worse than it felt. Rose flexed her wrist a little and decided that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. She wasn't particularly concerned about the scar; not like she didn't have enough of them already.

Her hair shampooed and conditioned, body scrubbed of dirt, sweat and god-knows-what else, Rose stepped out of the shower and picked up the big white towel on the rack to dry herself and a smaller one for her hair. Emerging into her room with the towel wrapped around her, she started searching the wardrobe for appropriate clothes. Everything in there looked brand new, so Rose grabbed a set of clothes, making sure that they would be practical enough for whatever was about to come rather than anything else.

The black trousers certainly felt sturdy as she pulled them on, as did the midnight blue jumper that fit her just snugly enough. There was a black coat very similar to her ruined one sitting in the wardrobe, and Rose sent a silent thanks to the TARDIS as she picked it up. It was double-breasted and had a tie around the waist and a little longer than the one she had before but it fit just as well, and Rose felt much better once she had it on.

_She would be okay_, she realised, as she finished getting ready. _She was strong enough_.

* * *

The Doctor was staring at the results on the TARDIS monitor, his eyes fixed on the words. It wasn't possible, it just wasn't.

"Doctor?"

He switched the monitor off and turned around to greet her. She did look much better after having cleaned up, yet somewhat more closed off than she had seemed before. Or perhaps it was the way she had chosen to dress herself in dark, severe colours with her hair in a tight French braid. Everything from the military boots on her feet to her stance seemed awfully familiar and he wondered briefly who she reminded him of.

"Hello Rose," he said with a quick smile. "Find everything alright?"

"Yeah, thanks," she nodded with a small smile. "Uh, I didn't know what to do with this," she said, holding up the vortex manipulator that was now all but useless.

The Doctor took it from her and placed it near the rotor. "I'll leave it here for now. You never know, we might find a use for it after all."

Rose nodded with a small smile. "So, anywhere we have to be?" she asked.

He nodded and flicked a switch next to the monitor so that when he turned it on, it wouldn't display those results. "A standard check of the war outposts," he said. "We can start with Viridian. It's the closest one to Karn and one of the biggest ones."

"What exactly do these outposts do?" asked Rose.

"Some of them are defensive positions, strategically speaking," he said as he started to steer the TARDIS away. "Others, like Viridian, are resource planets."

"What resources does Viridian have?" asked Rose with interest.

"Metals of almost every kind, making it invaluable to Daleks and Time Lords alike," said the Doctor as the TARDIS started to materialise with the usual sounds.

"And why are we going there?" asked Rose as the TARDIS landed on Viridian.

"Viridian is the foremost Gallifreyan outpost set up to engineer weapons needed to fight this war," said the Doctor as he and Rose stepped out of the TARDIS.

The planet outside looked empty of all life, yet the tall glass buildings and concrete roads were spotless. There was an odd sort of a hush in the air, as if the smallest of sounds would bring forth chaos.

"Still doesn't answer why we are here," said Rose in an automatic whisper.

He stared at Rose for a moment before answering. "I want to see what they have been up to," he said, leading her down the concrete road.

"Don't you know?" she asked, sounding surprised.

He looked distinctly uncomfortable at that. "No," he admitted.

"That doesn't sound like you," she snorted. At his raised eyebrows, she rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, you said yourself that this was the biggest war in the cosmos and you, of all people, would not have kept your nose out of it. Especially when it comes to weapons."

He glared at her furiously. "What is that supposed to mean?" he asked, feeling some dread at the thought of the man he would become.

She rolled her eyes again. "I meant, the weapons factory would have found itself burnt to the ground and have a banana grove on it instead if you thought they were doing something wrong," she said.

He barked out a small laugh at that, his demeanour softening. "You are not wrong," he said. "I have actually kept my nose out of it. Wilful ignorance, as a matter of fact. It is something I regret," he admitted softly.

Rose's eyes melted in compassion. "You tried to stay away from the war, didn't you?" she asked.

He looked at her in surprise. "How did you know?" he asked.

"I know you," she said with a rather sad smile. "Why now, though? Why set aside your rules now?"

"I haven't set my rules aside, Rose," he said with a sigh. "But I won't stand by as the universe gets slaughtered to bits in this bitter, endless war. I intend to end it, by any means necessary, if it means the survival of the universe."

Rose stared at him for a long moment before nodding. "Okay," she said simply as they continued walking. "Just one question."

"Yes?" he asked.

"Have you realised that we are being followed?" she asked.

Without missing a beat, his lips quirked up. "Of course. Ever since we left the TARDIS, in fact. Would you like to come with me into that dark alley so that we may ambush our pursuer?" he asked.

Rose's smile was bright and lovely. "Thought you'd never ask," she said, slipping her hand into his as they rounded the corner and took cover to hide from their tail.

Rose's mind drifted to her time with Zara and she suppressed a shiver, though judging by the way that the Doctor stiffened made her think that she hadn't exactly succeeded. He looked at her in concern but she avoided his gaze as they hid in the shadows.

Their pursuer's steps sounded almost metallic and Rose racked her brains to remember where she had that sound before. She got her answer a moment later when the four-legged metallic spider scurried up and started scanning the area, undoubtedly looking for them. It was different than the ones Cassandra had used, and looked sturdier and more menacing than she would have expected a spider made of metal to look.

She looked at the Doctor and found him frowning thoughtfully. A moment later, he dropped Rose's hand and left their hiding place, presumably to confront the spider. Rose rolled her eyes at his back before going after him. The spider turned towards them as they approached it.

"Hello, where did you come from?" asked the Doctor in a way that someone would greet a stray kitten.

The spider made no move to respond, just kept completely still. Rose felt a sense of unease, but the Doctor seemed mostly unperturbed. "Who sent you then, eh? Could you take us to your leader?" he asked.

The sense of dread worsened, and just as the red scanning light on the spider got a little brighter, Rose seized the Doctor and pulled him away. The laser from the spider hit the spot where the Doctor's head had been moments before.

"Run!" shouted Rose as she dragged the Doctor behind her.

The two of them ran down the concrete road of the seemingly deserted outpost, the metallic clink clink of their pursuer's legs sounding behind them. "We have to lose it," said Rose as they ran.

"Quick!" said the Doctor, thrusting the sonic screwdriver in her hands. "When I say so, point and activate it."

Rose took the sonic screwdriver, different from the ones she had seen before, and watched as the Doctor tossed a red marble at the spider. The marble burst open into a mesh that engulfed the spider and at his shout, Rose pointed the sonic screwdriver at it and pushed the button.

The whole thing sparked and the spider broke down into pieces as it was destroyed. The Doctor and Rose turned to each other in relief, and Rose gave him his screwdriver back.

"That's that then," said the Doctor with a grin. "And now…"

"Onto the secret weapons base?" asked Rose.

"Indeed," he nodded as they continued along the road towards the tall green glass building. It stood out like an emerald among the others, though there was still no sign of life.

"Shouldn't we have seen someone by now?" asked Rose uneasily. "They're hardly likely to send one metallic spider after us and then just let us have a wander around their secret weapons base."

"Unless…" said the Doctor.

"Unless what?" asked Rose.

"Unless, there really is no one here," he said.

Rose raised her eyebrows. "You said this was one of the biggest outposts," she said flatly.

"Well, yes, and look around you. Does it really feel like a major outpost during a chaotic war?" he asked.

Rose sighed and tucked a few errant strands from her braid behind her ear. "What about the spider then? Someone must have sent it after us, right?"

"Not if it was just left behind," he shrugged.

"Doesn't really make sense to abandon an outpost suddenly, does it? It doesn't look like it's been attacked," she said, looking at the pristine buildings and roads.

He smiled bitterly. "You really don't understand, do you? The war isn't the Daleks and Time Lords shooting guns at each other and blowing things up. Each side has gathered their allies, either by persuasion or force, and have been ranging a complex warfare over all of time and space. Whole species are being wiped from creation, some were never born at all and time itself is being used as a weapon. Whatever happened here, despite all appearances, was rather brutal."

"So what then?" asked Rose. "We can't just stand here. Shouldn't we be scanning for something? Find out if there are traces of who or what attacked Viridian."

He nodded. "Yes, we do," he said as he pushed open the door that led to the lobby of the green building. "We should…" he stopped and turned sharply in the direction of a storage closet that had creaked open slowly.

Rose turned too, having seen the door open, and stifled a gasp as a man emerged from beyond it, stumbling on his feet. He looked ancient; loose skin hanging over bones, eyes that were half-blind and the green robes on him at least three times too big for his weak, thin frame. The Doctor and Rose ran to him, and the man collapsed in the Doctor's arms.

He was saying something and it sounded like grunts and whispers to Rose, though she caught an occasional word. She wondered if the TARDIS wasn't translating for some reason, but then the man lost consciousness and unless she was mistaken, he had stopped breathing altogether.

"Is he…?" she asked in a small voice.

The Doctor looked horror-struck as he lowered the man's body to the floor. "Yes, he's dead," he said, as if he was in a daze.

"Did you know him?" she asked, looking at him in concern.

"No," he said, and his voice held much regret. "But he was a Time Lord."

Rose gasped and looked down at the man. She could see no signs of regeneration. "Why isn't he...you know, changing?" she asked.

"He's run out," said the Doctor flatly. "Burnt through all his regeneration. In a span of a few decades."

"How is that possible?" she asked, shocked. "And what did he keep talking about? He sounded like he was grunting and slurring his words."

"Did you understand anything of what he said?" asked the Doctor, still staring down at the dead Time Lord.

Rose's brow furrowed at the odd question. "I guess so," she said. "He kept saying something about shadows and houses, I think."

The Doctor tore his eyes away and looked at Rose in surprise. "Yes, he did," he said. "He said 'Shadow Houses', to be precise."

"And what are Shadow Houses?" asked Rose.

"A myth," snapped the Doctor unexpectedly. "He was confused and had no idea what he was talking about."

Rose raised her eyebrows. "Or, he was telling the truth and they aren't a myth," she said gently.

The Doctor rubbed his forehead in irritation. "Shadow Houses were a myth. In all my years, I have never seen an honest-to-goodness Shadow House on Gallifrey," he said, insistently.

"Doctor, now is not the time to debate mythology," snapped Rose. "Myth or not, we have to get to the bottom of this and if you could suspend your disbelief for one moment, we might be able to get some answers. So, what exactly are Shadow Houses and why exactly are you so adamant that they didn't exist?" she demanded.

The Doctor glared at her and looked away. "Shadow Houses were said to hold Time Lords whose regenerations had gone wrong. Discarded as being harmful or useless, they were tossed away in these houses, hidden away from the rest of Time Lord society," he said and then looked down at the Time Lord. "He said he was from the Shadow Houses and that he was being used for feeding."

"Feeding what?" asked Rose, horrified.

The Doctor closed his eyes. "He didn't say," he admitted. "But he was telling the truth, about the feeding part anyway. Someone has been feasting on his life force. They drained it out of him until he aged and aged and regenerated until he couldn't anymore. Then they tossed the husk out," he said, anger colouring his tone.

Rose swallowed back her revulsion. "Daleks?" she guessed.

The Doctor laughed bitterly. "I wish," he said.

Rose looked at him in horror. "Time Lords?" she asked in disbelief.

"No one else it could be," he said, his face closed off.

Rose nodded rather sadly and looked at the Time Lord on the floor. "We can't leave him here like this," she said.

The Doctor nodded and drew out a small silver sphere from his pocket that he set on the Time Lord's chest. He crossed his hands on top of it before pulling Rose away as they retreated a few steps. The silver sphere emitted an iridescent purple flame that engulfed the Time Lord's body.

"We burn our dead," said the Doctor softly.

Rose's eyes were forlorn as she stared at the flames. "Yes," she said. "I know."

The Doctor looked at her in question but she avoided his gaze. The purple flame burned brighter and took the Time Lord's body with it as it extinguished completely, leaving only a charred mark on the floor. Rose blinked, as if returning back to the present from a memory and turned away.

"So," she said, looking at the Doctor. "What do we do now?"

"The lift is through here," said the Doctor as they walked further into the lobby. "I think we ought to find an archives room."

"Or a security room," said Rose shrewdly. "They might have records monitoring Viridian. Split up?"

The Doctor nodded reluctantly and pointed at the numbers in the lift. "Security is level 3, archives is 18. Meet me back in the lobby in an hour."

Rose gave him a nod as the doors opened on level 3. Like a proper office building, it was posh and quiet but there was not a soul in sight. She walked out of the lift and went towards the large room with monitors set all around it. She was just about to start browsing through their last recorded data when she heard a sound rather like a TARDIS materialising.

She snapped around and gasped in surprise when a woman wearing all black materialised into the room, holding a bracelet in her hands. "Time Ring," she said as soon as she had become properly solid. "Horrid way to travel."

"Who the hell are you?" asked Rose.

The woman gave a sinister smile. "I am the Rani. Welcome to the domain of Morbius."

* * *

The Doctor tried not to jiggle his foot impatiently as the lift climbed its way up the floors. Finally, it arrived on level 18 and he got out at once, eager to get to the bottom of this whole mess.

Level 18 was just as quiet as the rest of Viridian, and the Doctor realised that it had been divided into sections based on the year. He went to move towards the most recent data cubes when he realised that there was a Time Lord already sitting at the magnificent desk in the middle of the room. His head was bent over the data cube in his hand, but the grand robes proclaimed him to be the President of the Council, an absurdity in itself.

"I knew you would not stay away for long, Doctor," he said as the Doctor approached him.

"And you ought to know not to wear clothes that don't belong to you," said the Doctor, a chill running down his spine.

The man looked up and gave a tired smile. "They will belong to me soon enough, Doctor," he said. "Your friend, Romana, is it? She is trying her best but her best is not enough to win this war."

"You're not saying that the Time Lords resurrected you?" said the Doctor, hoping with all his being he was wrong.

"Resurrected me?" he sounded amused. "Oh my dear Doctor, not only did they resurrect me, they emptied Viridian for my use, and have been feeding me excellent Time Lord life force to nourish me back to the height of my power."

The Doctor's hands trembled with rage. "I realised that the situation is rather desperate but I failed to recognise how low they had fallen to bring the likes of you back to life," said the Doctor viciously.

It only served to amuse him further. "I would not be so quick to judge, Doctor. Time Lords from the Shadow Houses are well and good, but I require more. The spirit of a warrior, the brains of a scientist and the body of a fighter," he said, getting to his feet slowly.

"You shall not have my life, Morbius," said the Doctor.

Morbius threw his head back and laughed loudly. "YOU? You pathetic disgrace of a Time Lord, you dare assume I shall seek your life force? RANI! Bring her forth."

The Doctor's blood went cold when he saw the Rani carrying an unconscious Rose in her arms. Morbius smirked at him in amusement as Rose was laid down on the desk. "The Artron energy in her is powerful than any Time Lord that Gallifrey could produce, and the Huon particles in her bloodstream are stronger than many of the TARDISes we produced for this war."

"Don't even try," said the Rani, pointing a blaster at the Doctor when he tried to move towards Rose.

Morbius was too lost in his imminent victory to pay any attention to them. He smirked triumphantly at the Doctor and raised his hand to touch Rose's temple. "It is her life force that I seek, Doctor, for it is her life that shall bring back Morbius! And with me, shall come the end of this war and victory for ME!"

* * *

**A/N End of Chapter Four. Let me know what you thought of it.**

**Return of two major Time Lords from Doctor Who's history. Don't be taken in with their initial actions. War changes a lot of things.**

**The next chapter will be up soon. See you then!**


	5. Chapter Five

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own any of it, nor do I get paid for it.**

**A/N Thanks for the wonderful response on the last chapter. The Doctor and Rose deal with Morbius, and the question of renegades raises a few important points.**

**Mind-bending was part of 'The Brain of Morbius' and the Eighth Man Bound thing was in the New Adventure novel 'The Dying Days'.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

_Previously_

_The Doctor's blood went cold when he saw the Rani carrying an unconscious Rose in her arms. Morbius smirked at him in amusement as Rose was laid down on the desk. "The Artron energy in her is powerful than any Time Lord that Gallifrey could produce, and the Huon particles in her bloodstream are stronger than many of the TARDISes we produced for this war."_

_"Don't even try," said the Rani, pointing a blaster at the Doctor when he tried to move towards Rose._

_Morbius was too lost in his imminent victory to pay any attention to them. He smirked triumphantly at the Doctor and raised his hand to touch Rose's temple. "It is her life force that I seek, Doctor, for it is her life that shall bring back Morbius! And with me, shall come the end of this war and victory for ME!"_

"Brain of a scientist, really?" came Rose's voice as her eyes snapped open. "I didn't even pass my A-levels."

"Down, girl!" shouted the Rani as she turned around and shot Morbius straight in the chest.

The Doctor stared in shock as the Rani lowered her gun and then helped Rose get to her feet. "What?" was all he could manage.

The Rani and Rose exchanged a look._ "Who the hell are you?" asked Rose._

_The woman gave a sinister smile. "I am the Rani. Welcome to the domain of Morbius."_

_Rose looked at her warily. "You're a Time Lord?" she asked._

_"Yes," said the Rani. "As is Morbius. I am, well, his keeper you could say."_

_"Is this Morbius the one who needs to feed on Time Lords?" asked Rose, crossing her arms._

_The Rani raised her eyebrows. "Yes," she said. "The Time Lords emptied this outpost so that they could safely house Morbius until he was stable enough. I was put in charge of bringing him the supplies for the life force and...persuade him to impart his knowledge of temporal weaponry."_

_It was Rose's turn to raise her eyebrows. "And you're telling me all of this because?" she asked._

_The Rani smirked. "My orders have recently changed. Morbius is more of a liability than an asset and I have been asked to...dispose of him. You wouldn't even have to do much. Just play dead for a while."_

_Rose still looked wary, but gave a small nod._

"Come, we have to take him to the basement," said the Rani now as she holstered her weapon.

"Isn't he dead?" asked Rose as the Doctor tossed Morbius' unconscious form over his shoulder and they headed back to the lift.

"Not as easy to kill him, I'm afraid," said the Rani. "He got the Council to enact several failsafes to make sure that they didn't betray him."

"What I want to know is why they resurrected him in the first place," said the Doctor, still looking furious.

The Rani looked at him with an almost pitying look. "You really have no inkling of how bad things really are, do you?" she asked, and then continued without waiting for him to answer. "Temporal engineers are being taken by Dalek scout ships at an alarming rate, and there are rumours of an advanced Dalek Time Controller surfacing again. Morbius could have proven useful, especially with a military brain like his, had he not lost his grip on sanity."

The Doctor's jaw clenched tightly. "The Dalek Time Controller?" he asked. "Where?"

"Intelligence is still being gathered. I dare say we shall know more in the coming days," said the Rani as they arrived back in the lobby.

"And where do you fit into all of this, Rani? Since when do you care?" asked the Doctor harshly.

She turned and glared coldly at him. "Like it or not, Doctor, this affects us all and I am no exception to it. The sooner this mess gets sorted out, the better for me. I cannot continue in my research if my menagerie is constantly under threat by Dalek invading forces," she said, and opened the stairway door that led to the basement.

"Compassionate as ever, Rani," snorted the Doctor bitterly.

The Rani smiled sweetly at him, her eyes glinting. "Which of the two of us has been running from the war like a coward again?" she asked.

The Doctor scowled at her, but Rose interrupted before he could snap back. "Right, enough you two," she said sharply. "How are we dealing with the unconscious maniac of a Time Lord we are carting around?"

The Rani shot the Doctor a glare before turning to Rose. "He is not stable enough for a full regeneration yet, but he can heal himself with a device he created to harness the regenerative energy from the radiation in the Time Lock."

"So, as long as the Time Lock exists, he can just heal himself and not die?" asked Rose in disbelief. "And your lot agreed to that?"

"We didn't even know he was capable of making something of the sort," snapped the Rani. "As soon as the Council found out, they asked me to get rid of him. Except, it's not exactly easy to do."

"Where's this device?" asked the Doctor.

"In the basement over here," said the Rani, as she scanned her Time Ring over the lock to the vault-like door in the basement which hissed open. "There is a way to break the connection that Morbius has with the radiation in the Time Lock."

The Doctor had set Morbius down into one of the two chairs inside the small, dark room. With a quick glance at the equipment around him, he turned around and glared fiercely at the Rani. "Is this a joke, Rani?" he demanded. "This isn't really the time for mind-bending competitions, you know."

"Morbius modified it so that he could be the only one to harness that regenerative energy, Doctor," said the Rani coolly. "We need another mental signature to overwhelm his so that the connection may be severed."

"Absolutely not. I refuse," said the Doctor furiously.

"I wasn't going to ask you," said the Rani as she drew her weapon out again and pointed it at Rose.

"Don't get her involved in this mess, Rani. You and the Time Lords did this," snapped the Doctor angrily.

"It is either you or her. Don't you dare tell me you would rather it was you," countered the Rani.

"Can you two not talk about me like I'm not here," Rose interrupted loudly. She crossed her arms. "What exactly is mind-bending?" she asked.

"Time Lord wrestling," said the Doctor shortly. "Two Time Lords pitting their telepathic strengths against each other."

"And how am I supposed to do it if it's Time Lord wrestling?" asked Rose, turning to the Rani.

"Do not play coy with me, girl," said the Rani coldly. "The Time Lords tend to take notice when an anomaly breaches a Time Lock to land right in the middle of the warzone. Especially an anomaly such as you."

"Yeah, yeah, bursting with artron radiation, ample amounts of Huon particles in the bloodstream, negligible cellular decay, all with a 100% human DNA," Rose rattled off to the astonished look on the two Time Lords' faces. "Prolonged exposure to the vortex will do that to you."

"You knew?" asked the Doctor.

"Yes, as did you, I suppose," she said, a bit coolly when she noticed his lack of surprise. "Did your lot tell you or did you scan me when I wasn't looking?"

The Doctor had the grace to look ashamed. Rose chuckled humourlessly. "Yeah, that's what I thought. You could have just asked, you know. Not like I was keeping it a secret or anything."

"Informative as this no doubt is, our pressing problem is Morbius," interrupted the Rani. "He knows the Time Lords have betrayed him and he will seek vengeance unless he is stopped. You girl, get into the chair," she added, jabbing her gun at Rose.

"No," said the Doctor. "If it's another Time Lord you need, then I'll happily volunteer. Morbius is my problem, not Rose's."

The Rani glared at him. "You foolish idiot, his brain is still a lot superior to yours. He will kill you," she said. "If we use the girl, then we kill two birds with one stone. Morbius will be defeated and we might learn more about what this creature really is," she added with a sneer.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Didn't anyone ever teach you not to be such a bigot?" she asked.

"Quiet, girl!" snapped the Rani and turned to the Doctor, who was looking slightly thoughtful. "You know I am right, Doctor."

His gaze snapped to the Rani and he smiled a little. "Oh, how little you really know me, Rani," he said as he got in the chair himself. "Wake Morbius. I think it is time I put an end to your mess."

"Hang about, I should do it if you are going to die," said Rose while the Rani fumed.

The Doctor smiled at Rose. "Oh, don't worry, Rose," he said as he strapped the contraption to his forehead. "I have done this before, you know. I defeated him then, and I will do so again. Not to mention, I was the Eighth Man Bound."

The Rani lowered her gun and glared at him fiercely. "Fine!" she snapped and reversed the quantum bullets that she had shot Morbius with.

The Time Lord awoke with a gasp and looked around frantically. Upon seeing himself sitting opposite the Doctor with his beloved device between them, he raised his eyebrows. "Mind-bending? You dare challenge me again, Doctor?" he demanded.

"Less talking, more thinking, Morbius," said the Doctor, closing his eyes. _Are you ready?_

Morbius' voice was gloating as their minds began to battle. _My mind is far superior to yours, Doctor. Defeating you shall be a pleasure. And then I shall take the girl. Her life force shall be mine, Doctor, and the Time Lords shall suffer for this betrayal._

The Doctor, on the other hand, stayed far calmer. _You really ought to focus, you know. I have already driven back to, let's see...oh, look, this is the body you attempted to gain with Zarodnix's help._

_And I have taken you back to your seventh regeneration, Doctor. Was it he who created the girl? Hmm, it would certainly be his style._

_What are you on about?_ The Doctor was confused by the turn of the conversation, though he did have a nasty idea of what it was about.

_Oh, don't pretend you do not understand, Doctor._ Morbius sounded smug now._ The girl, Rose, she was exposed to the time vortex consistent with the heart of a TARDIS. That she sought you out when she breached the Time Lock tells me that it was your TARDIS's heart that she looked into. Question is, did you do it deliberately? Pick up a silly human from a backwater planet and create a perfect temporal warrior?_

_Don't be ridiculous, Morbius. That is far-fetched even for you. You are just hoping to distract me since I am close to defeating you._ The Doctor could sense his own lack of conviction.

_Think whatever you want, Doctor, but don't deny the obvious explanation. I can see that you have thought of it yourself too. Was she a weapon your future self created and sent back to you? Can you really be sure that she was sent back by you, and not by someone else who seeks to gain from this war? How much do you really know about this Rose Tyler, Doctor?_

* * *

"Is this supposed to take so long?" asked Rose, clenching her fists anxiously as she saw the Doctor and Morbius stay perfectly still with their eyes closed.

"Could take seconds, minutes, hours, days, even months," said the Rani in a bored voice. "You heard the Doctor, he was the Eighth Man Bound."

"Yeah, what is that anyway?" asked Rose.

"A game," said the Rani with a scowl. "To see how far you could push your telepathic capabilities and glance at your future regenerations. Some catch one or two if they are lucky, most of the others just regenerate or die doing it."

"But the Doctor saw more?" asked Rose.

"Eighth Man Bound," said the Rani, looking rather put out. "He saw eight of his future selves. A record in itself, not to mention incredibly telling that it should be this face he saw last all those years ago as an Initiate."

"This is the Eighth Doctor?" asked Rose in surprise.

The Rani raised her eyebrows. "You didn't know? Curious," she murmured. "So, while he is otherwise unoccupied, why don't you tell me the truth?"

"About what exactly? You think I am an anomalous creature, remember?" asked Rose, her tone slightly mocking.

"Perhaps that was a bit harsh," conceded the Rani. "But you cannot fault me for being cautious. These are dangerous times and I am not as foolishly trusting as the Doctor."

Rose shrugged lightly. "I guess so," she said. "Talk about foolishly trusting though. I let you take me to Morbius without a second thought."

The Rani smirked. "You will learn," she said. "You are from his future, that much is obvious. But how did you come here? Did he send you? Did he construct you and send you here?"

Rose stared at her like she was mad. "Construct me? I'm a person, not a robot!" she snapped angrily. "And no one sent me. I didn't even know that I would land here of all places. Since I can't leave, I thought I would help where I can. Honestly though, I am having second thoughts about that too, if everyone's been scanning me behind my back and wondering if I am some sort of a super weapon."

The Rani raised her eyebrows at the outburst. She was about to say something when Morbius gave a cry of pain. They snapped around to look at him, and saw a smile starting to blossom on the Doctor's face while Morbius seemed to be getting weaker. They both still had their eyes closed but it was clear that the Doctor was winning.

Despite her frustration with him, Rose was worried about the Doctor, and when he opened his eyes slowly, she rushed to his side at once. Morbius was motionless, but the Doctor was taking the contraption off his head. Rose batted his hands away and helped take it off.

"Did it work?" asked the Rani, leaning forward eagerly.

The Doctor glared at her but nodded. "He will be in a coma for a while now. If you want to kill him, now would be a good time," he said, his tone slightly mocking as he stood up with Rose's help.

The Rani shot him a cold look, and fired two bullets into each of Morbius' hearts. "That ought to keep him subdued until I get him to Gallifrey," she said.

"If you know what's right, Rani, you will ask the Council to dispose of him," said the Doctor, starting to get his colour back. "He had no intention of helping them win this war. He only wanted victory for himself."

"It will be up to the Council, Doctor," said the Rani as she readied the Time Ring. "Whatever his intentions, he still possesses incredible knowledge that we may be able to use."

The Doctor glared at her furiously. "Has everyone utterly lost their minds? Bringing renegades back into this war is doing no one any favours," he said.

"You are a renegade, as am I. Or have you forgotten that?" asked the Rani coldly. "Face it, Doctor, we are desperate and it has been necessary to bring some of us back."

The Doctor was about to retort angrily, but then he looked at the Rani curiously. "Who else did they bring back?" he asked.

The Rani suddenly looked uncomfortable. "It is the Council's business, Doctor," she said half-heartedly.

"You don't give a toss about what the Council thinks, Rani," snapped the Doctor. "Tell me the truth. Who else did the Time Lords bring back?"

"The Master," she answered reluctantly. "But he disappeared almost immediately. Efforts to trace him have turned up empty."

The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "Who else?" he asked.

The Rani's hesitance was even more obvious now. "Now, Doctor, do understand that this was the Council's decision, not mine. And they didn't bring him back to life, so much as award him a legitimate status in this war rather than calling him a renegade."

"Rani," said the Doctor in a low, dangerous voice. "Who?"

"The Monk," she said. "The Monk is now a part of this war."

* * *

**A/N End of Chapter 5. Let me know what you thought.**

**This story will be full of spoilers for the Big Finish audios since we now have confirmation that they are canon. The Monk is a renegade Time Lord and more about him to come in the next chapter for those of you unfamiliar with the audios.**

**The new chapter will be up soon. See you then!**


	6. Chapter Six

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own any of it, nor do I get paid for it.**

**A/N Thanks for the lovely response on the last chapter. This one contains MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SERIES 4 OF THE EIGHTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES and there are MENTIONS OF MAJOR CHARACTER DEATHS. I am not sure there really is a way of avoiding them. Sorry!**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Six**

_Previously_

_"Rani," said the Doctor in a low, dangerous voice. "Who?"_

_"The Monk," she said. "The Monk is now a part of this war."_

The Doctor's jaw clenched tightly. "Rose, we are leaving," he said through gritted teeth, keeping his glare fixed on the Rani.

"Doctor…" began the Rani.

"No," he said, in a low, cold voice. "Just don't."

The Rani sighed. "Fine," she said and then activated the Time Ring, taking Morbius with her as she disappeared.

Rose glanced away from the empty spot back to the Doctor, who was still looking furious. "Who's the Monk?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"We're leaving," snapped the Doctor as he turned away abruptly and started walking out of the basement.

Rose felt her own temper simmer as she caught up to him. "Don't snap at me," she said, equally annoyed. "It isn't going to help much if you are keeping secrets."

"Oh, and you would know all about that, wouldn't you?" he sniped.

Rose glared angrily at him. "I wasn't the one who scanned someone behind their back now, was I?" she demanded.

The Doctor seemed to deflate a little at that jab. "Yes, I realise," he said. "I am sorry. I should have just asked you."

Rose stopped glaring at him and nodded. "Look, we are stuck together, for better or worse, and times aren't exactly good for being secretive. So," she took a deep breath and met his gaze firmly. "Who is the Monk?"

The Doctor met her gaze with a steely one of his own. "He is a renegade Time Lord who left Gallifrey not fifty years after I did. The last time we met, well, he was working for the Daleks," he said, sounding more and more reluctant to go on.

"And you think he'll still be working for them?" asked Rose, trying to coax him to reveal what he knew.

"Not if he knows what's good for him," said the Doctor grimly. "His interference last time cost, well it cost a lot. To me, and to the universe."

Rose looked concerned. "Did you lose someone?" she asked quietly.

The Doctor fiddled with the buttons on his waistcoat and nodded slowly. "Two of my companions, Tamsin Drew an-and L-Lucie Miller," he said. "Not just them, but my great-grandson, Alex Campbell, as well."

Rose gasped. "Oh god, Doctor, I am so sorry," she said, touching his arm gently.

He sniffed and abruptly straightened up. "Anyway, gone now. But the Monk is bad news," his voice was harder now. "Especially since there are rumours of the Dalek Time Controller resurfacing again. The last time, he helped repair it."

Rose realised that he clearly did not wish to talk about it and steered the conversation towards their next step. "So, what do we do now?" asked Rose as she saw the TARDIS in the distance. "Check where they have moved the Viridian outpost?"

"Not exactly urgent now," said the Doctor as he increased his pace. "The Rani gave us something far more important to go on. I must see what the Dalek Time Controller is up to."

Rose raised an eyebrow at his words but said nothing as the two of them entered the TARDIS again. The Doctor went to the console at once and started typing furiously, no doubt hoping to unearth whatever intel the Time Lords had on the Dalek Time Controller. Rose watched his frantic pace briefly, before going further into the TARDIS, hoping she would lead her to the library.

Fortunately, she came across the familiar double doors after only one hallway, and she immediately found her way to one of the terminals connected to the TARDIS databanks. The Doctor had shown her how to use one a few months after she had started travelling with him, though he had warned her not to look up future events.

A quick search for the Dalek Time Controller yielded an entire folder full of documents. Knowing that the Doctor would acquaint himself with the fresh intel, Rose settled in to read the catalogued history of the Dalek Time Controller.

* * *

Vermillion had once been a thriving planet just on the outer reaches of Kasterborous, and was said to be rivaled only by Gallifrey in its beauty. Unlike the advanced civilisation of Gallifrey however, the Vermillions led a very simple life. Theirs was an agrarian planet and although their techniques were quite developed, it was still a very unremarkable planet as far as technology went.

It was one of the reasons why it made for such a good planet for the Daleks to conquer. With a population of just over five billion people and no moons, it made for an ideal slave planet. Theirs was a tried and tested strategy. A deadly plague would be released onto the planet and the weaker inhabitants would perish. The survivors were then either put to work or converted to Robomen to use as cattle during the skirmishes that were taking place all over the universe.

Vermillion had been no different. When the plague had been released a year ago, most of the population had perished, with the survivors now being in the five million benchmark. The survivors were well aware that the Dalek ships would soon descend from the skies and take what was left of them and destroy all of that too.

Unlike other planets that had fallen before them, the Vermillions had decided to organise their remaining numbers into a resistance force. They'd had help from an unexpected ally. She had shown up one day out of the blue in the midst of the plague, claiming to be immune to it and having experience with Daleks before.

The middle-aged woman with her dark hair and tired eyes was the hope that the Vermillions had needed. She had helped form resistance groups, built various contraptions for helping them communicate with survivors in different areas of the planet and seen about getting them arms and equipment to fight the Daleks. The Vermillions had been heartened and they thought that they would be ready when the Daleks came. How wrong they were…

It started at one of the biggest survivor colonies in the southern continents. One of their sentries fell ill, not with the usual symptoms of the plague, but with curious radiation burns all over his body. Usual treatment proved futile and two days after he first fell ill, the other survivors across the planet lost all contact with the colony in the South. Then, rumours began to surface of other colonies in the South getting the radiation burns before they would simply stop contact with the others.

The remaining survivor colonies started to become hyper-vigilant, making sure that none of their people showed any signs of this new plague as they called it. Reconnaissance parties were sent to the south but none of them ever returned. The people in the North were getting worried, since the loss of colonies also meant that their supplies were running out.

It was in the midst of bitter winter, that their mysterious saviour decided that something had to be done.

"Mrs. Campbell! Mrs. Campbell, are you here?"

The woman looked up from where she was packing up her rucksack. "Oh, Meria, what is it?" she asked.

The young woman, Meria, bent over to catch her breath. "Papa said you were heading to the South," she said.

"Yes, I am," she answered. "We are running low on supplies, and we cannot do without the South's help. I must see what has happened down there."

"What if they are all dead?" asked Meria curiously.

"Then we can set up a new colony," she said firmly.

Meria observed her tense posture. "You don't think they are dead, do you?" she asked.

She turned around and resumed her packing. "It doesn't fit the pattern," she muttered, partly to herself. "This hasn't happened before. Whatever those radiation burns are, they are new."

"Can you take me with you?" asked Meria, her eyes lighting up.

She looked up in alarm. "Meria! What on Earth are you on about, child?" she demanded.

"What's Earth?" asked Meria curiously.

"Never you mind," she said. "The battlefield is no place for you. Our children are here to carry on the future, not perish in this war."

"But I want to help!" protested Meria.

"And you will," she said, calmly. "Once all of this is over, you shall have a lot to do."

"But I want to help now!" insisted Meria.

She sighed and shook her head. "Sometimes you remind me far too much of my son," she said tiredly.

"Your son?" asked Meria, her eyes lighting up with curiosity. "Where is he now?"

Susan looked at her sharply. "Dead," she answered. "He was killed by the Daleks."

Meria's eyes widened before she looked down hastily. "I am sorry," she said.

Susan's eyes softened a little. "He was very stubborn too," she said. "He wanted to stay and fight like his father did." She shook her head. "You will not come with me, Meria. You shall stay here and be prepared to rebuild once this threat blows over. Survive, child, that is what you were meant to do."

Without looking to see if her point had been driven home, Susan Campbell picked up her rucksack and left her scant living quarters to make her way to the south.

* * *

Vermillion only had two continents, the North and South, with a massive ocean in the middle. The Cinnabar Island was famously considered to be the halfway point between the North and the South due to its location in the middle of the Vermillion Ocean. The Cinnabar Island colony had met the same fate as the poor survivors in the South and it was there that the Dalek Time Controller's ship arrived.

"REPORT, DALEK SUPREME!"

"THE EXPERIMENT HAS NOT YIELDED SUCCESS, DALEK TIME CONTROLLER!" reported Dalek Supreme. "THE THAL GENETIC MATTER IS NOT PURE ENOUGH!"

"WHERE IS THE MONK?" demanded the Dalek Time Controller.

"I am right here," came the Monk's tired voice as he walked up to the Dalek Time Controller.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS FAILURE, MONK?" demanded the Dalek Time Controller.

The Monk sighed. "I warned you that this might happen. Thals have evolved far too differently after your first war, just as the Daleks did from the Kaleds. There isn't enough similarity in their genetic structure to mimic the Dalek gene, despite the common Skarosian origin," he explained.

"YOU HAVE FAILED, MONK!" declared the Dalek Time Controller. "YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"No, no, no, wait," said the Monk hastily. "There is something else we can do."

"EX-PLAIN!"

The Monk took a deep breath. "We have been using Vermillion and Thal subjects for the experiment with the Skarosian radiations. But if we were to acquire a subject with similar physiology but with temporal radiation in the mix, I believe that the experiment might have success," he said.

"YOU REQUIRE A TIME LORD?" inquired the Dalek Supreme.

"No, not a Time Lord, the physiognomy is too different," said the Monk hastily. "We need a human being or close to it anyway, who has travelled through time."

* * *

It took five whole days for Susan to make her way from her semi-permanent base down to Cinnabar Island. She only had a handful experienced combatants with her, and they set up a camp in the woods just off the beach.

The Cinnabar Island was quiet and it didn't appear as if any survivors were about. They would travel further through the Island in the morning, before moving on to the southern coast in the next two days, provided everything went as per their schedule. The survivors were assured of their success, but Susan wished she could be that optimistic. She had been keeping a keen eye for signs of Dalek arrivals but so far their intel had turned up nothing. If Daleks had come to Vermillion, they had stayed well below radar which meant that they had found some new, destructive strategy to use. It set Susan's teeth on edge.

"Are you coming for supper, Mrs. Campbell?" asked Ciaran, the youngest one of their party, a hearty lad of a mere twenty years.

Susan smiled at him and shook her head. "I am alright, thanks, Ciaran," she said. "Be careful when you light your fires. We don't want to alert anyone that we are here."

Ciaran smiled a little. "You really think that the Daleks are here, don't you Mrs. C?" he asked.

Susan's smile slipped. "I have learned not to let myself get complacent, Ciaran," she said, looking towards the ocean.

Ciaran opened his mouth, presumably to tell her that they would all be dead by now if Daleks were indeed here, when they heard a splash in the water. The two of them jumped to their feet, and Ciaran raised his weapon, ready to attack whatever was coming their way.

"Don't shoot," said the figure as they emerged from behind the rocks lining the coast, with their hands raised.

"Meria! What are you doing here?" demanded Susan, looking astonished at the appearance of the girl.

"Have you been following us the whole time?" asked Ciaran angrily.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to help," said Meria beseechingly.

Susan sighed. "Lower your gun, Ciaran, and tell the others," she said and then turned to Meria. "It was very irresponsible of you, child, but go on and eat some supper. Tomorrow morning, Ciaran will take you back home." Both of them protested at that but Susan shot them a steely look. "Now!" she ordered and the two of them went towards the camp, sniping at each other irritably.

There was another splash in the water, and Susan whirled around, ready to yell at whoever Meria had brought with her when she saw the familiar eye stalk rise from the water.

"DALEK!" she shouted in warning and ran into the woods. By the time she reached the camp, the others had picked up their weapons and were getting ready to fight.

"There's a whole bunch of them coming from the beach," reported Neil, the unofficial leader of their party. "We can't hold them all back!"

"Run! Come on, run!" said Susan as they all fled deeper into the woods with Daleks in pursuit after them.

* * *

"And this Vermillion? What's so special about it?" asked Rose as they walked out of the TARDIS.

"It's where the Dalek Time Controller's ship was last seen by the Time Lords, over a week ago, relative time," said the Doctor as they looked around the hold that they had landed in.

"Must be an advanced planet to have ships like this," commented Rose as she tapped her knuckles against the wall.

The Doctor frowned as he used his sonic screwdriver to open the only door that led out of the hold. "Far from it really," he said as the doors opened. "It's…" he stopped mid-explanation and glanced around the control room of a very familiar ship.

It only took Rose a fraction of a second more to realise that it was a Dalek ship. "Come on," said the Doctor urgently. "Back…" he was cut off when he saw a Dalek enter the empty control room.

"DO NOT MOVE!" said the Dalek, moving towards them. "YOU ARE THE DOCTOR! YOU ARE AN ENEMY…"

"Enemy of the Daleks and let me guess, you want to exterminate me," said the Doctor with an eye-roll.

Rose knew she still had the compact laser deluxe with her, and while it might not be enough to shoot their way out, it was still enough to take out that one Dalek and make a dash for the TARDIS. She adjusted her stance slightly, making sure that her hand was right over her gun.

"Wait!" came the voice that most definitely did not belong to the Daleks, and the Doctor and Rose looked over as a man dressed in a monk's black robes rushed into the control room.

"YOU!" shouted the Doctor furiously when he saw the Monk.

"Don't kill them," said the Monk to the Dalek, ignoring the Doctor. "They might prove useful."

The Doctor gritted his teeth in anger. "Oh, you never learn do you, Monk?" he asked. "Working for the Daleks again? Have you forgotten what happened the last time? Does the name Tamsin Drew still mean anything to you?"

The Monk flinched at the name, and for a moment it looked like the Doctor's words had got to him. However, he straightened up and addressed the Dalek. "I need those two for the experiments. You cannot kill them," he said. When the Dalek still refused to budge, the Monk glared at it. "May I remind you that I have the Dalek Time Controller's express permission when it comes to the experiments?"

The Dalek's eyestalk turned towards the Monk. "I OBEY," it said reluctantly before turning back to the Doctor and Rose. "YOU WILL COME WITH ME!"

"Not a chance, tinpot! Run, Doctor!" shouted Rose as she shot the Dalek in front of them and pushed the Doctor to run. He obeyed on instinct and Rose ran after him to get back to the hold where the TARDIS was parked.

They were nearly at the door leading to the hold when a bolt of Dalek ray was fired at Rose's legs. She lost her footing and fell to the floor.

"ROSE!" shouted the Doctor, realising that the Monk had called for reinforcements and that there was a group of Daleks in the control room.

Rose looked up at him. "RUN! GO!" she shouted, knowing that her legs had been paralysed.

"Don't kill her! We need her!" shouted the Monk.

"GO DOCTOR!" shouted Rose as a Dalek ray nearly hit him.

The Doctor shot her a look of despair but at her furious cries to leave, he slammed the hold door shut and ran to the TARDIS.

Rose heard the TARDIS leave and slumped to the floor as the Daleks converged on her. "THE FEMALE WILL BE TAKEN TO THE EXPERIMENTAL CHAMBER!"

"Oh, will I?" said Rose, acutely aware that she was at their mercy, though unwilling to give them the upper hand just yet.

"DO NOT STRUGGLE!" said the Dalek and fired a bolt right at her head.

* * *

"We can't outrun them!" shouted Neil as they ran.

Susan knew he was right, but then the key around her neck started getting warmer. "Impossible," she muttered and couldn't believe her eyes when the TARDIS started materialising a few yards away. "Over there!" she shouted. "Run over there!"

The doors sprang open as they reached them and Susan ushered everyone inside and slammed the doors shut behind her. She glanced around eagerly. "Grandfather! Oh, Grandfather! I knew you would come!" she said in relief.

Her relief slipped away when she saw the furious look on the Doctor's face. "They have her. The Daleks have Rose."

* * *

**A/N End of the chapter. What did you think?**

**The next chapter will probably earn a rating for violence. It will be up soon. See you then!**


	7. Chapter Seven

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything, nor do I get paid for it.**

**A/N Thanks for the amazing response on the last chapter. This one contains mild torture and violence.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven**

_Previously_

_The doors sprang open as they reached them and Susan ushered everyone inside and slammed the doors shut behind her. She glanced around eagerly. "Grandfather! Oh, Grandfather! I knew you would come!" she said in relief._

_Her relief slipped away when she saw the furious look on the Doctor's face. "They have her. The Daleks have Rose."_

Susan's expression became guarded. "Who's Rose?" she asked.

"I should have checked before opening the doors right on the Dalek Time Controller's ship…" he stopped abruptly and looked up in shock. "Susan? What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same," said Susan, crossing her arms obstinately.

The Doctor walked up to her. "You are supposed to be on Earth," he said, barely concealed anger in his voice. "Not in the middle of this mess."

Susan swelled furiously at his admonishing tone, but Meria piped up before she could retort. "Wow, that's what you said to me, Mrs. Campbell," she said.

Susan glared at her. "Not now, Meria," she said and then looked at the five other members of their party who were looking around the TARDIS with ill-concealed disgust.

"You one of them then, Mrs. C?" asked Ciaran, sounding disappointed. "Are you one of the Time Lords?"

"No! Well, yes," said Susan, sounding frustrated. "It isn't like that."

"Oh, it is exactly like that," snapped Neil. "Did they send you to us in the first place?"

"No, no, no," said Susan immediately. "Nobody sent me, I swear to you! I came of my own accord."

"What I want to know is why, Susan," said the Doctor, still in that same admonishing tone. "Why would you leave the safety of Earth and come to this madness?"

"Safety? Safety, Grandfather?" she demanded incredulously. "Nothing and nowhere is really safe. Besides, it isn't as if I have anything left on Earth now."

The Doctor had the grace to drop the point. "Oh, Susan, I am…"

"Don't apologise, Grandfather," she said gently, her demeanour softening. "Earth was never really my home, you knew that. If it hadn't been for David, and later Alex, I would never have stayed there. And after the call came, I could hardly not answer."

"Oh, but you could have, Susan," said the Doctor, sounding distressed.

"Grandfather, I…"

"If I can just interrupt this family reunion or whatever it is," interrupted Neil. "We demand to be let out of this-this hideous contraption!"

"Let out?" demanded the Doctor, rounding on him. "I didn't even invite you. You lot just barged your way in. And if you want to be let out where there is a horde of Daleks just waiting to slaughter you, then go ahead. Leave!"

"Grandfather!" said Susan, outraged. "They are frightened, as is everyone else on this planet." She turned to Neil and the rest of the Vermillions who looked a little chastened too. "We all have a common enemy in the Daleks, and for everyone's sake, let's stop arguing over petty differences and focus on the real problem, shall we?"

The Doctor flicked a switch on the console and nodded. "Susan's right," he said. "I have put the TARDIS on invisible for now, but they will find a way to break through her barriers sooner or later. We need a plan, one to get Rose out of there, and to stop whatever the Dalek Time Controller has planned."

"The Dalek Time Controller?" asked Susan, her voice hardening. "What is that doing here?"

"Precisely what I mean to find out and I could use some help," said the Doctor, looking at the Vermillions. "Well?"

Neil looked around at his people and then nodded at the Doctor. "Fine," he said. "For now, anyway," he muttered under his breath.

* * *

Rose awoke with a gasp, and came to the immediate realisation that she was seated in a chair with her wrists and ankles bound. She was in a dark cell that smelled almost obsessively of disinfectant with an undercurrent of burnt flesh.

Her memory caught up to the mentions of Daleks and experiments and she began to struggle with her bonds, hoping to free herself.

"Stop doing that," she heard the Monk say as he opened her cell door and walked inside. "You'll end up hurting yourself."

"Stay away from me," snarled Rose, hoping that anger would conceal her fear. This scenario was entirely too familiar and she had no wish to see history repeat itself.

The Monk halted in his steps and held up his hands. "I do not mean you harm," he said calmly. "But you really ought to stop before the Daleks use...alternative means to subdue you."

Rose stopped struggling but glared venomously at the Monk. "And you don't want that I suppose?" she spat.

"I do not, as a matter of fact," he said, still in that infuriatingly calm voice. "I need your help."

Rose stared at him incredulously. "Help? You want me to help you, which means helping the Daleks? Did the Daleks take away your common sense along with your integrity?"

His calm demeanour slipped for an instant. "Do not presume to know of my motivations for associating myself with the Daleks, child," he snapped.

She continued to goad him, realising that he was letting a lot more slip when he got angry."Associating? Is that what they call treachery and genocide these days, I wonder?" she mocked.

He roared at her in anger and drew his hand back to strike her. Rose stared at him unflinchingly, her face twisted in a snarl. "Go ahead," she hissed. "Try it! But I must warn you that things did not end up well for the last people who had me in shackles."

The Monk stared at her, fury blazing in his eyes, before he lowered his hand. "You do not know anything about me," he said, his voice shaking.

"I know you are working for the Daleks, even after you saw what helping them once before did," said Rose.

"That is precisely why I am doing this!" he spat angrily. "They...used me. They broke their promise. An-and they killed Tamsin!"

"You're telling me you are working with the Daleks for revenge?" asked Rose, sceptically.

"Sshh," he hissed and then glanced around skittishly. "Yes," he said in a low voice. "The Dalek Time Controller sought me out. How, I don't know. But I decided to take them up on their offer, because it is often easy to dismantle an enterprise from within."

Rose was still sceptical, but unless the Monk was a spectacularly good actor, she doubted he was lying to her. "Fine, say I believe you," she said, raising her eyebrow. "What exactly have the Daleks been doing on Vermillion?"

* * *

"It hit the south first," said Susan. "Radiation burns and then we lost touch with them."

The Doctor stroked his chin thoughtfully. "The Monk said something about needing our help for experiments. It's how I know Rose will still be alive," he said.

Susan was keenly aware of the Vermillions close by, but they were currently catching up on sleep in the corner of the console room. She lowered her voice just in case. "Who is she, Grandfather? I can't imagine you bringing a companion into this madness," she said.

"She isn't my companion," he said immediately. "I don't know what she is, but she is from the future and that makes her dangerous to all concerned. The Time Lords are aware of her already, and if the Daleks discover what she knows, then we might as well be doomed now."

"She's from the future?" asked Susan incredulously. "How did she even get here?"

The Doctor nodded to the vortex manipulator sitting near the rotor. "The glowing bits on that space hopper is TARDIS coral, Susan," he said.

Susan looked between the vortex manipulator and the Doctor. "Your TARDIS, Grandfather?" she asked warily.

"Yes," he said quietly. "It pulled her across the void, the familiar coral seeking out the source. That's how she bypassed sealed universes and a time lock."

"And she survived that?" asked Susan, her eyes wide.

"I was as surprised as you are," said the Doctor quietly. "Her DNA proclaims her to be human, yet the Artron and Huon energy in her physiognomy are off the charts."

Susan looked at the monitor he swung towards her and read the results quickly. "How is she even alive?" she wondered out loud. "Forget the Artron readings, the Huon particles alone should have been fatal."

"She said that it was prolonged exposure to the vortex and Morbius thought it was consistent with the effects of exposure to the heart of a TARDIS," he said, partly to think out loud and partly to get a second opinion about Rose.

"Bu-but, that is horrible!" said Susan. "Pure vortex energy is dangerous enough to Time Lords from what I remember. No wonder her physiognomy has suffered so much. I doubt anyone has experimented with the effects of the vortex on humans before."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at her. "Do you think someone experimented on her?" he asked stoically.

Susan's brow furrowed. "You don't think so?" she asked, surprised.

The Doctor looked away and stared at the console. "Morbius, and I assume most Time Lords, are under the impression that it was my future self that experimented on her and sent her back."

"That is ridiculous," snapped Susan at once. "You would never do such a thing."

He closed his eyes. "I can't be sure of that," he said.

"And you haven't asked her this because you are afraid that it might be true," guessed Susan. "Oh, Grandfather, you are positively dense sometimes."

He opened his eyes and glared at her. "It has all happened rather quickly and we are in the middle of a war. Now is hardly the time to wonder what my future self might have done," he snapped. "Tell me more about this new plague."

Susan ignored his obvious attempt to change the subject. "Do you think it is possible that she might have done it voluntarily?" she asked delicately.

He stared at her like she was mad. "Why would anyone do that?" he asked incredulously.

"Several reasons, and you ought to know most of them already, Grandfather," said Susan.

He sighed and shook his head. "It doesn't matter now," he said. "I have to get her out of there, and apart from taking on the Dalek Time Controller and a ship full of Daleks with five Vermillions and primitive weaponry, I am out of options."

"Mrs. Campbell?"

Susan gave an exasperated sigh and turned around. "What is it now, Meria?" she asked in a tired voice.

Meria's lips trembled and she held out her arms in front of Susan. They were covered in red rashes. "I think I have the new plague."

* * *

"The Dalek numbers are diminishing rapidly. The Time Lords have built several successful delta waves intended to target them," said the Monk in a low voice.

"Yeah, know what a delta wave does," said Rose, suppressing a shiver. "But I know the Daleks can always make more of them, can't they?"

"Usually they can, yes," said the Monk. "But the delta waves are calibrated to target the specific Dalek genetics, so that the survivors or other beings do not die in the crossfire. Even if they make more Daleks, they will end up dying from the delta waves."

"And being Daleks they wouldn't really want to modify their genetics," said Rose, remembering the Dalek in Van Statten's bunker who considered any sort of mutation to be a sickness instead.

"Precisely," said the Monk. "But they need foot soldiers to fight in this war. Something that will be able to sustain the Time Lords' delta waves while the Daleks improve their genetics enough to fight the waves themselves."

"So that's what you've been doing? Helping them create new soldiers?" asked Rose.

"I would use the word help rather loosely, if I were you," he said. "I have been sabotaging the experiments regularly, ensuring that these so-called Skaro Degradations are nothing better than weak soldiers who would go down with a simple phaser blast."

Rose stared at him questioningly, rather aware that he was avoiding her gaze. "Something's gone wrong, hasn't it?" she asked.

The Monk looked chagrined. "I didn't know they'd use Thals. The common Skarosian gene that the Daleks and Thals share was dormant and I thought it harmless," he said.

"Monk, what has happened?" asked Rose, feeling a sense of dread.

"It has worked," he said. "These...Skaro Degradations, they are very, very powerful. More than I anticipated them being. I haven't told the Daleks yet and I need your help destroying them before…"

"MONK!"

Rose jumped violently and saw a group of Daleks with the Dalek Supreme in the lead standing outside her cell. The Monk looked terrified as he faced them.

"D-Dalek Supreme, is something wrong?" he asked, his voice trembling.

"YOU HAVE BETRAYED THE DALEKS! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"No! No, I haven't betrayed you!" shouted the Monk, but to no avail as the Dalek Supreme's gun shot him straight in the chest, and he fell to the ground at Rose's feet.

* * *

"Well?" asked Susan anxiously.

"They're radiation burns but I can't isolate the specific kind of radiation," said the Doctor as he stared at the results on the screen in the infirmary.

"What's going on?" demanded Neil as he and the other Vermillions walked into the infirmary and found the Doctor and Susan scanning Meria, who was trembling with fear. "What are you doing to her?"

"Neil, look at her arms," said Ciaran and Neil followed his gaze.

"Is she infected?" asked Neil and readied his weapon.

The Doctor turned around and glared at him. "Put that away. You can't fire guns inside the TARDIS," he snapped.

"Don't need a gun to kill her then," said Neil as he put his gun away and started to walk towards Meria who squeaked with fear.

"That's enough, Neil!" snapped Susan, standing in front of Meria protectively. "We have no proof that the radiation burns have anything to do with what happened in the south."

"Isn't that the whole reason we set out from our camps?" demanded Neil.

"That was before we knew the Daleks were already here," countered Susan furiously. "What's to say that the Daleks have been taking or killing the survivors instead of these burns, whatever they are?"

Neil fell silent at that. "She has a point," allowed Ciaran. "In any case, we shouldn't start killing each other. The Daleks are the real enemies here."

"Good man," said the Doctor approvingly. "As far as I can say, there is definitely Skarosian radiation mixed in with several other kinds of radiation in there. It's like…" he stopped and looked at Meria sternly. "Were you captured by the Daleks?" he asked.

Meria stared at him with wide, frightened eyes. "No, of course not," she said a little too quickly.

"Meria, tell the truth," said Susan sternly.

Meria's trembling got worse. "I don't know what happened. One minute I was following you, and then the Daleks found me. I thought they would kill me, but then I must have passed out. I woke up on the beach when you found me," she blurted out quickly. "I'm sorry, I should have said."

"Did the Daleks do something to her? Is she a spy for them?" asked Neil, reaching for his weapon again.

"No," said the Doctor shortly. "The Daleks must have taken her to their ship. You have been bombarded with a combination of radiation."

"They experimented on me?" asked Meria, feeling sickened.

"I'm sorry," said the Doctor. "There isn't anything I can do for you, Meria. The radiation is eating through your metabolism."

"Is she contagious?" asked Neil warily.

"Oh, do shut up!" snapped Susan, glaring at him. "Grandfather, isn't there any sort of treatment that will work?" she asked the Doctor pleadingly.

The Doctor shook his head sadly. "Nothing that will stop it," he said. "That combination of radiation is fatal to anyone who is exposed to it, aliens and Time Lords alike. The only ones who might survive it…" he trailed off.

"Well?" asked Susan.

"Would have to be Skarosian," he finished, horrified.

* * *

Rose felt a raw scream erupt from her throat as red welts began to rise on her body. The radiation bombardment stopped, and then the red welts died down again, leaving her skin unmarked like before. She nearly sobbed with frustration. It had been the sixth time that the Daleks had done that. No matter how much she told them that it wouldn't affect her like other humanoids, they seemed determined to see it for themselves.

She tried to control her breathing, focusing on anything that she could apart from the heat she could feel crawling behind her eyes. She wouldn't let it overwhelm her again, not after what happened the last time. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the pain.

And surely it came, more painful than before. The Daleks had been incrementally increasing the bombardment of radiation on her body, determined to see how far they could push the radiation until she couldn't heal the burns on her body. Rose nearly bloodied her lip trying not to blurt out that it would do no good. _If she lost control again…_

She screamed loudly again, her nails digging into her palms and drawing blood. The bombardment stopped again and she closed her eyes as the red burns left her body again. The cell door depressurised and Rose sat up when she saw the Dalek Time Controller enter her cell.

"YOU ARE IMMUNE."

Rose could hardly feel her tongue as she answered. "I would have told you that if you'd asked nicely," she said, wincing at how sore her throat was.

"WHY ARE YOU IMMUNE?"

"I-I don't know," she said._ If they got even the slightest hint that she came from the future…_

"YOU ARE AN ASSOCIATE OF THE DOCTOR?"

"Associate might-might be pushing it," she gasped out. "We only met yesterday." _Had it only been a day? Felt so much longer…_ "Where's the Monk?" she asked instead. "I saw that he was starting to regenerate, so where is he?"

The Dalek Time Controller turned its eyestalk towards the door and the Dalek Supreme pushed in a man in the Monk's robes, who fell to his knees in his weakened state. This new man had a younger face than before, and he had barely looked up at Rose when the Dalek Time Controller shot him. He screamed in pain as he died yet again.

Rose glared venomously at the Dalek Time Controller, who turned back to her. "YOU WILL CO-OPERATE OR HIS NEXT REGENERATION SHALL BE HIS LAST!"

The Monk started to regenerate again and the Dalek Time Controller pointed its gun at him. "Fine!" shouted Rose. "What do you want?"

Instead of answering, the bonds holding her to the chair sprang open. Rose looked up in surprise at the Dalek Time Controller. "YOU ARE THE ABOMINATION. YOU SHALL HELP THE SKARO DEGRADATIONS."

* * *

**A/N End of Chapter Seven. So, what did you think?**

**The next chapter will be up soon. See you then!**


	8. Chapter Eight

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own any of it, nor do I get paid for it.**

**A/N Thanks for the response on the last chapter. This chapter warrants a warning for mentions and consequences of torture.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight**

_Previously_

_The Monk started to regenerate again and the Dalek Time Controller pointed its gun at him. "Fine!" shouted Rose. "What do you want?"_

_Instead of answering, the bonds holding her to the chair sprang open. Rose looked up in surprise at the Dalek Time Controller. "YOU ARE THE ABOMINATION. YOU SHALL HELP THE SKARO DEGRADATIONS."_

Rose stiffened in her seat. "The-the what?" she asked, cursing herself for stumbling.

"THE ABOMINATION!" The Dalek Time Controller repeated angrily.

"I-I don't know what you mean," she said.

There was silence before the Dalek Time Controller shot the Monk's recently regenerated body. He hadn't even regained consciousness after the latest regeneration, but the Dalek blast had surely killed him again since the regeneration energy set his skin glowing yet again.

Rose gritted her teeth and glared at the Dalek Time Controller. "Look, it isn't going to help if you keep killing him because you think I know something," she said, thankful that she was no longer stumbling on her words. "I don't even know what the Skaro degradations are, except for something about Thals that have been experimented on. As for the other thing," she took a deep breath and kept her gaze steady. "You are mistaken if you think I am the Abomination, whatever that is."

The Dalek Time Controller was silent and Rose waited with bated breath since she could see that the Monk had finished regenerating yet again. She had no idea how many regenerations he had left and if he could survive another one of the Dalek blasts. Her worry dissipated slightly when the Dalek Time Controller lowered its gun. "YOU WILL COME WITH ME!"

"Where are we going?" asked Rose warily.

"YOU SHALL SEE THE SKARO DEGRADATIONS!"

* * *

"I have to get Rose out of there," said the Doctor as they returned to the console room. "The Monk said they were experimenting. I didn't think...didn't realise that they were using the Vermillions to test the new radiation on."

"But what is it all for?" asked Susan. "What do they hope to achieve from subjecting those poor people to radiation that is obviously fatal to them?"

That made the Doctor pause. He was certain that it wouldn't have taken the Daleks long to realise that the radiation was simply killing the Vermillions. He knew that it wasn't a weapon because the Daleks possessed far superior methods and technology than irradiating people individually or even as a group. Especially since this radiation didn't even appear to be contagious once it hit the host.

He took a deep breath and tried to think it through carefully. He had been accused of waging a war against the Daleks through all his lives, and as much as it disgusted him, he had to admit that he knew better than most the way that the Daleks worked. "The Vermillions might have just been the initial test subjects," he said slowly. "Guinea pigs to improve and finetune the radiation."

"Then who is the intended target? The Skarosian radiation is fatal to practically everyone and mixed with those other radiations, they make for a deadly combination. Who could possibly survive it?" asked Susan.

"Other Skarosians," said the Doctor. "I doubt the Daleks would choose to improve their genetics through something as crude as radiation, so that leaves…"

"The Thals," realised Susan. "They are targeting the Thals."

* * *

"So, these Thals once lived on your planet?" asked Rose, as she limped behind the Dalek Time Controller. "And developed a way to combat the Skarosian radiation?"

"CORRECT! THE MONK LIED TO US BUT THE DALEKS KEPT TABS ON HIS EXPERIMENTS. THE THAL SUBJECTS HAVE RESPONDED TO THE RADIATION."

"I'm guessing they're not immune like me," said Rose.

"NO."

"So, they have evolved differently to you somehow then?" asked Rose. "Something that would be able to resist the delta waves." There was silence which Rose took as an affirmative. "How will you control them, though? From what I've heard so far, they're not exactly big fans of yours, and if you exposed them to radiation and caused them to mutate, I doubt the feeling has somehow changed."

The silence was definitely uncomfortable now and Rose felt her eyes go wide. "Oh, that is it, isn't it? You aren't able to control them. You just created a bunch of super soldiers from a race that hates your very existence. Oh that is just…"

"SILENCE!"

Rose ignored the Dalek Time Controller. "Oh, that is just stupid, that is," she said.

"SILENCE!" The order was more forceful now. "YOU WILL CONTROL THE DEGRADATIONS!"

"And how am I supposed to do that?" asked Rose. "Come to think of it, if I am able to do that, what's to stop me from ordering them to kill you as my first task?"

"YOU ARE THE ABOMINATION."

Rose's step faltered. "You keep saying that but I don't know what you mean," she said.

"DO NOT LIE! YOU ARE THE WEAPON MADE BY THE TIME LORDS TO DESTROY THE SKARO DEGRADATIONS."

"I think you have me confused with someone else, mate," said Rose, getting a sinking feeling in her heart just the same. "I have never even met another Time Lord apart from the Doctor."

"THE INTELLIGENCE IS SOUND! ONLY THE ABOMINATION WILL BE IMMUNE!"

"Who gave you this intelligence?" asked Rose. "Oh come on, you can at least tell me that."

"IT WAS STOLEN FROM THE OUTPOST VIRIDIAN," answered the Dalek Time Controller. "NOW, MOVE!"

* * *

"We got a plan yet?" asked Neil, grumpily.

"Grandfather," said Susan, ignoring Neil. "The shields will only hold for an hour or so."

The Doctor checked the readings and nodded. "Yes, quite," he agreed. "I think we ought to…" He turned around sharply when he heard the materialisation sound of a Time Ring in the console room. "Get out," he told the Time Lord coldly.

"Is this how you really greet all your guests, Doctor?" asked Androgar with a smirk on his face.

"My guests usually knock," snapped the Doctor. "Oh, would you mind leaving? I am rather in the middle of something."

"Yes, we have been watching," said Androgar dryly. "Taking on the Dalek Time Controller with five Vermillions and your granddaughter, are you?"

"If you're here to help then I suggest you do it fast," said the Doctor coolly.

"Yes, might as well," shrugged Androgar. "The Monk was sent in by us to infiltrate the Dalek Time Controller's operation. We knew that they were trying to find a way to bypass our delta waves."

"So that's what they are doing," murmured Susan.

"Yes, and the Monk was only meant to sabotage a few experiments, tell them it hadn't worked, so that we could chip away at the Dalek fleets with the delta waves," said Androgar. "Except, they brought in the Thals."

"It has worked then?" asked the Doctor. "You quite literally handed over a weapon to the Daleks by sanctioning this absurd enterprise."

Androgar shot him a condescending glare. "Do have some faith in us, Doctor," he said in a long-suffering tone. "The Daleks have no way of controlling those mutated Thals. Why, they even bought that absurd bit of intelligence about the Abomination."

"The Abomination?" asked the Doctor.

"Ah yes, that is what we call your little blonde friend," said Androgar with a nasty smile. "Rather suits her, doesn't it?"

The Doctor gritted his teeth. "You deliberately set her up," he spat. "What did you tell them?"

"That she could control the Skaro Degradations because she was immune to the radiation," he said lightly. At the Doctor's look of surprise, he rolled his eyes. "We have been keeping tabs on your TARDIS, Doctor, and that DNA sample you took from her is being analysed by practically every scientist on Gallifrey. We knew she would be immune, and it has been…postulated, that she might be able to destroy these Degradations."

"Except you cannot know that for sure," said the Doctor, furiously. "You just made a gamble on her life because you are convinced that she is a WEAPON!" He was shouting by the end.

"She _is_ a weapon," said Androgar coolly. "If you weren't so busy running from the war or getting caught up in your sentimentality, you would see it too."

The Doctor looked like he was about to shout again, but then his voice lowered menacingly. "You better hope that your little game hasn't cost Rose her life, Androgar, because there are only a few things in this universe that I would protect beyond anything else, and my friends happen to fall into that category. These Skaro Degradations, whatever they might be, will pale in comparison to the sort of hell I will bring down on Gallifrey," he said.

"Hell has already descended on us, Doctor," said Androgar furiously, dropping his smug demeanour. "Look around you, you worthless renegade, and tell me that you cannot see each possibility just dying down into the same darkness that we are all headed for. All of us on Gallifrey have been trying to change the final outcome for nearly a century now, and unlike you, we have had to give up this foolish pursuit of sentimentality and emotions, Doctor. Now more than ever, it is about survival." He threw two bright green cubes the size of dice at the Doctor which he caught instinctively. "Kill the Skaro Degradations and all the Daleks on that planet before they escape," snapped Androgar. "It is the least we expect from you."

Without giving the Doctor a chance to respond, Androgar activated his Time Ring and dematerialised from the Doctor's TARDIS. Susan glanced at the Doctor in worry, realising that he had all but frozen up at Androgar's words. "Grandfather?" she asked in a small voice.

The Doctor turned around swiftly and started plugging the dice into the TARDIS console. Susan almost sighed to herself before touching his arm gently. "Grandfather?" she tried again.

He stiffened at her touch, and recoiled sharply. "Not now, Susan," he said, his voice full of forced calm. "I am afraid this time I must do as I am told."

"But what about Rose?" asked Susan, concerned.

"And the rest of our people down there?" quipped up Ciaran.

The Doctor looked at him and then at Susan. "If the Time Lords are right, and I am assuming they are, then the delta waves will only kill the Daleks and those Skaro degradations. Everyone else ought to remain safe," he said.

"Are you sure, Grandfather?" asked Susan, knowing that there were still millions of people on Vermillion.

Before the Doctor could answer, the TARDIS gave a lurch and the lights dimmed a little. "Shields are at sixty percent," said the Doctor, with a quick glance at the monitor. "I have to do it soon."

He met Susan's gaze who stared at him for a moment before nodding in determination. Heartened, the Doctor activated the two delta waves.

* * *

Rose could feel the panic settling into her chest. Nothing about this made any sense, but the thing that got to her the most was the Dalek Time Controller's invariable smugness. She rather felt like she was missing a huge point, but she truly couldn't understand how they expected her to control the Skaro Degradations and not have her first order be the destruction of all the Daleks around them.

"THE TELEPATHIC CHAMBER IS READY!"

Rose jumped at that, and cold seeped through her bones. She had been a complete idiot and looking at it the wrong way. The Daleks wouldn't control the Skaro Degradations, they would control her. At least, they thought that they could. Rose almost yelled at them that it wouldn't work, but clamped her mouth shut as she started to focus on her mental shields. She was sure that they wouldn't be able to control her but she didn't trust herself not to retaliate with all her mental strength.

The Daleks nudged her to get into the telepathic chamber, which rather resembled a small cubicle with a chair surrounded by complex wires and machinery. An entire side of the cubicle was glass and beyond it she could see what the Skaro Degradations were. It was funny, she was expecting something much like the Daleks themselves, but the Degradations looked mostly humanoid.

They were tall, well around 7 feet, and had identical blond hair. There were a dozen of them, standing in four rows of three, with their arms crossed tightly behind their backs. What unnerved her the most was not the obvious strength and odd energy emanating from them, but the blank, listless expressions on their faces. It reminded her of the void creatures she had seen briefly during her dimension jumps.

"MOVE!"

At the Dalek's command, Rose took a seat inside the telepathic chamber. Immediately, the clamps came up to bind her legs and hands. She didn't struggle, doing her best to keep her mind calm. The Dalek Time Controller, and even the other Daleks were oddly silent while the door of the chamber closed itself with a hiss. The chair turned a little so that Rose was now facing the glass wall with the Skaro Degradations beyond it.

Up close, Rose could see that their expression wasn't as blank as she had previously thought. It was almost murderous, and the memory of the void creatures slammed into her head again with surprising ferocity. It had been one of her earliest jumps and she had landed on an Earth that had been invaded by them.

They were humanoids as well, and were impervious to practically every weapon known to anyone. Their strength lay in the ruthlessness with which they bled the planet dry, murdering the populace and sucking the minerals and resources out of the planet until all that was left was a dry husk of a planet. She had likened them to Daleks at the time, but unlike the Daleks they took no prisoners, nor did they make the deaths of the other beings quick. It was a long, drawn-out death, and they had practically turned that Earth into something resembling the void where all time and space had coagulated and warped beyond recognition.

Although Rose had narrowly escaped one of them only a few hours after landing there, nearly a week had passed in Pete's world by the time she had returned. They had never found a name for them, and they had been dubbed 'void creatures' by her Torchwood team for convenience. If Rose didn't know better, she would consider these Skaro Degradations to be one mutation away from turning into those void creatures.

"INITIATE SEQUENCE EPSILON."

The words sounded muted from outside the chamber, and Rose clenched her fists in preparation. A bright light shone into her eyes and for a moment, it seemed like nothing had happened. Rose relaxed slightly but then her head was suddenly gripped with an onslaught of pain that made the radiation torture she had suffered before seem almost bearable.

She didn't even know if she was screaming, or if it was the Daleks crying out, or if she was back facing the void creatures who were bleeding her life force dry, or if she was just back inside her dungeon under the Torchwood building being carved into pieces…

The pain didn't stop, didn't let up, and Rose fought with all her might to keep the heat behind her eyes caged up but then darkness fell upon her and she knew no more.

* * *

"Has it worked?" asked Susan quickly, as the Vermillions crowded around the console eagerly too.

The Doctor checked a few readings and gave a nod. "Yes, I should think so," he said. "Come."

He opened the doors of the TARDIS and they found the dead shells of the Daleks littering the woods where the TARDIS had taken refuge. The Vermillions and Susan followed him out cautiously, but upon seeing the sight that greeted them, the Vermillions broke out into cheers.

"Sshh," said Susan sharply. "We don't know what could be about."

"What could be around?" asked Neil, looking at her like she was mad. "The Daleks are dead!" He kicked an empty Dalek shell which fell over with a clang. Ignoring the glare that the Doctor shot him, he looked at the remaining of his people. "Come on you lot, let's take this joyous news back to our people."

"What about me?" asked Meria, who had been rather quiet the entire time.

"We'll find a way to treat you," said Ciaran, trying to sound optimistic.

"I think we ought to stay together for now," said Susan carefully.

"No, thank you," snapped Neil as he ushered the rest of the party behind him. "Your lot have done enough here. Just leave us be."

Susan opened her mouth to protest, but the Doctor gripped her shoulder and shook his head. The Vermillions left the area quickly, not sparing the Time Lords another glance. Even Meria avoided their gaze as she followed behind the rest of the group.

Susan sighed and shook her head. "I still think…" she began.

"Let them go, Susan," said the Doctor as he took her hand and led her towards the Dalek ship which was camouflaged further into the woods.

It didn't take the Doctor's sonic screwdriver long to undo the camouflage and as the two of them entered the Dalek ship, they were struck by the deathly silence inside the ship. The Daleks were all definitely dead, and when the Doctor and Susan walked through the ship, they found a man in the monk's robes lying inside a cell. A quick scan told them that he was dead too, and it was too late for regeneration.

Regretfully, the Doctor gave him his final rites, just as he had the poor Time Lord that Morbius had fed on. He and Susan continued to look for Rose, and they finally found her lying unconscious into what appeared to be a telepathic chamber.

"Oh no," gasped Susan, when she saw how pale Rose looked.

The Doctor wasted no time in opening the chamber and freeing Rose from the bindings holding her trapped. Fortunately, she was still breathing, albeit a bit slowly. A quick glance into the chamber next to it showed a group of Thals lying unconscious on the ground. Thankful that the Time Lords' delta waves had worked on both Daleks and the Skaro Degradations alike, the Doctor picked Rose up in his arms carefully and beckoned Susan to follow him towards the TARDIS.

Unbeknownst to them, the Skaro Degradations started gaining their life signs back even before they had reached the TARDIS infirmary.

* * *

"Well?" asked Susan in concern as the Doctor laid Rose onto the examination table and scanned her briefly.

"Minor psychic trauma and some lacerations on her palms. She seems fine apart from that," he said, sounding a bit puzzled. "Get her clothes off so I can put her into the full body scanner to check for internal injuries."

Susan nodded, and worked the black coat and jumper off Rose's body while the Doctor prepared the full body scanner. She was about to continue when she pulled away with a gasp.

The Doctor turned around and saw the horrified look on Susan's face. "What is it, Susan?" he asked.

"Look, Grandfather," she said in a low voice, pointing to the criss-cross of deep scars decorating Rose's arms and torso.

The Doctor's eyes went wide and his hands trembled slightly as he scanned Rose again. "They-they are old scars," he pronounced slowly.

"What happened to her?" asked Susan, looking close to tears.

The Doctor rested a gentle hand on Susan's shoulder. "I don't know, my dear, but I shall find out," he said. He traced a scar on Rose's right forearm and almost flinched at the coldness he could feel emanating from the scar. Abruptly, he pulled away and returned to the scanner. "Get the remaining clothes off her, and take her jewellery off too. The metal might interfere with the results," he said, his voice sounding flat and detached.

Susan didn't move, still looking horrified at the myriad of scars on Rose's body. It took a sharp reminder from her Grandfather for her to jump back to work. She got Rose's remaining clothes off and dressed her in a flimsy hospital gown, all the while trying not to flinch at the scars that covered nearly every surface of her body, save her face.

The only jewellery that Rose appeared to be wearing was a chain with the TARDIS key, her hoop earrings and a wedding ring on her left hand. Susan's brow furrowed as she took them off carefully. "You didn't tell me she was married," said Susan.

"She's a widow," said the Doctor shortly. "The scanner's ready, but I need the R-79 solution. It's in a jar over by the cupboard." He lifted Rose off the examination table and situated her inside the scanner. "Susan," he said sharply when he saw that she hadn't fetched the solution. He turned around and found her staring at something in her hand with a puzzled look on her face. "Susan!" he said again, letting some admonishment slip into his tone.

She looked up hurriedly and went a little pink. "Sorry, Grandfather," she said and quickly fetched him the solution that he had asked for. Almost immediately, she returned to looking at the object in her hand.

"Should I ask what interests you so much?" asked the Doctor, sounding a little cross.

Susan held up the object in her hand which turned out to be Rose's ring. "There's an inscription in her wedding ring," she said.

"So?" asked the Doctor. "I understand that it is a human custom."

"I know that, Grandfather," said Susan, as she walked up to him. "But look at this one."

The Doctor took the ring with a sigh and examined the inscription. He felt himself freeze as he read it again, hoping he had misread it before.

"It's Old High Gallifreyan, isn't it?" asked Susan, oblivious of the Doctor's state. "No wonder I can't read it. I could never quite get the grasp of it, and nobody used it by the time I was born. But does that mean her husband was a Time Lord, Grandfather?" When she didn't get a reply, she looked at the Doctor and saw how pale he had gone. "Grandfather? What's wrong?" she asked.

The Doctor tore his eyes away from the inscription and closed the ring inside his fist, tightly enough for it to hurt. "Not _a_ Time Lord," he said slowly, still sounding shocked. "It is a mark and handwriting that I recognise."

Susan's brow furrowed. "Whose is it?" she asked curiously.

The Doctor's mouth opened but whatever he was about to say was cut off by the ominous ringing coming from the depths of the TARDIS.

"The Cloister Bell," realised Susan with a gasp.

"Come, Susan," he said imperiously, and ran towards the console room.

"What's wrong? We are still on Vermillion, aren't we?" she asked while the Doctor checked the monitors quickly.

"No, we are in orbit around the planet, and I set an alert to check for any Dalek survivors," he said, pulling a lever rather angrily.

"And did any of them survive?" asked Susan.

The Doctor looked at her, and she nearly gasped at the sheer terror in his eyes. "No," he said. "The Daleks are dead."

"Then what?" asked Susan.

"The Skaro Degradations," he said. "They have escaped."

* * *

**A/N End of the chapter. Let me know what you thought of it.**

**The next chapter will deal with the Skaro Degradations, and more about Rose's past. It will be up soon. See you then!**


	9. Chapter Nine

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own any of it, nor do I get paid for it.**

**A/N Thank you for the lovely response on the last chapter. This chapter is enormous but I really didn't want to split it up.**

**Warnings for mentions of torture and character death. The quantic reanimator appeared in the Eighth Doctor Audio 'The Scapegoat'.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Nine**

"You know we ought to move sooner or later. I think I feel the bougainvillea trying to crawl its way around my ankle," said Rose softly.

The Doctor lifted his head slightly and checked her ankle, in time to see the soft green tendril gently wrapping itself around it. With a smile, he nudged the vine with his toe and it retreated at once, leaving Rose's foot alone. "There," he said, sounding very pleased with himself. "Now, we don't have to move. Why your mother thought that having those ghastly things in her greenhouse was a good idea, I'll never know."

"It was a gift from the Verlossian ambassador. It would have been rude to refuse," said Rose, hiding her smile in his bare chest, feeling his single heart thudding. "And mum and dad will be back any minute. We don't want to walk out of their greenhouse half-dressed after not seeing them for a month."

"It's hardly our fault that we couldn't warn them of our arrival," said the Doctor, and Rose knew he would be pouting a little. "The coral is growing faster than I anticipated, and we promised to check the rift in Minsk…"

"I know, I know," said Rose and raised her chin to kiss him softly. "I spoke to Jake while you were checking on the coral," she continued when the Doctor released her lips and moved down to her neck.

"Mmm, have we got somewhere new to be?" he asked, shifting aside her blonde hair to access more skin of her neck.

"Iceland," she said, gasping slightly when his teeth scraped the hollow of her throat.

His head snapped up. "Really? Why don't we ever get sent to Belize or Cabo, eh? Could use a warm holiday," he joked.

"It's not a holiday, you daft man," giggled Rose. "There's been some unexplained activity and anomalous energy fluctuations in the vicinity."

"How is that not a holiday?" he asked with a cheeky smile and Rose had to agree. "We have a mystery to solve, Rose Tyler, and Iceland to explore. We haven't done that one already, have we?"

"Nope. We've done Greenland, not Iceland," said Rose.

She heard a curious clanging in her ear, but the Doctor continued to talk about their salvage trip to Greenland where they'd found a broken down vortex manipulator which the Doctor had been repairing.

"Rose, are you listening?" he asked and Rose blinked.

"Yeah, just thought I heard something," she said, shaking her head. "What were you saying?" But the ringing was getting louder, until she couldn't hear the Doctor's voice anymore and she awoke with a gasp.

Sitting up, Rose realised that she was in the scanner that she remembered from the TARDIS medbay, which was indeed where she was. The top of the scanner had opened up, as it did when it finished the scans. Good thing too, since Rose would have banged her head otherwise in her rush to sit up and given herself a concussion.

Hissing at the soreness of her muscles that reminded her that she had recently been tortured by the Daleks, Rose got out of the scanner and stretched a little. Her clothes had been left in a neat pile on the examination bed, and she wondered if it had been the Doctor who had undressed her. Deciding to dwell on it later, she took off the hospital gown and got dressed again. The clothes were slightly stiff with her dried sweat, but Rose deduced that there must have been an emergency for the Doctor to have left her in the scanner.

As she laced her boots, she sighed at the memory that she had taken refuge in. It had been about two years after they'd been married, and she and her Doctor had been in Minsk when they'd received a telepathic nudge from their TARDIS coral. They had rushed back to London the same day to check on the coral in her parents' greenhouse, and after making sure that it had everything it would need, they had left for Iceland only a day later.

It had been their life in that parallel world, rushing around the globe to solve mysteries, sometimes for Torchwood, but mostly when one or both of them inevitably stumbled into trouble. They were rarely ever in London, unless it was for holidays and special occasions or when their TARDIS coral called for them, usually because she needed something. In the years after she had lost it all, Rose relived those wondrous memories in her head time and time again, to remind herself of who she was and keep her sanity.

Shaking away those thoughts, she grabbed her coat and rushed towards the console room, where she could hear the Doctor speaking to a woman. Curious, Rose quickened her steps.

The Doctor was standing at the console, one hand tweaking levers and switches on the console while the other tugged at his own hair in frustration. "...got Amaranthine and Lovat," he said.

"That brings it to eight planets in total," said the woman, looking worried. She noticed Rose in the doorway and turned to the Doctor quickly, who followed her gaze and nodded at Rose.

"Rose, this is Susan. Susan, this is Rose," he said absently. "I'm afraid we have an emergency right now. The Skaro Degradations have escaped."

"Where did they go?" she asked in horror, simultaneously trying to remember if her Doctor had ever mentioned a Susan before. The answer came crashing into her mind and she gasped as she looked at Susan. "Susan? The Doctor's granddaughter?" she asked.

Susan looked surprised, yet pleased. "Yes, I am," she said, noticing how pale her Grandfather had gone behind Rose's back. She cleared her throat hastily. "The Degradations have escaped onto eight different planets here in the outer reaches. The Time Lords' delta waves did nothing but knock them out for a while."

Rose flinched at the mention of the delta wave, but nodded along. "Are these planets close together?" she asked.

"Neighbouring planets," answered the Doctor, looking surprised at her question. "Why?"

"Because I realised that my first hunch about them was right," said Rose, through gritted teeth. "Those Skaro Degradations, I will encounter them once again in the future when the void dies out."

The Doctor stared at her in alarm. "What could possibly destroy the void?" he asked.

Rose shook her head quickly. "It's a long story," she said. "Look, if I encounter them in the future, then it means that they were locked up in the void, weren't they?"

"Perhaps," said the Doctor, looking displeased at not being given the whole picture. "The question is whether those Degradations are really a threat, now that they are away from the Dalek influence."

Rose stared at him like he was mad, and even Susan shot him an incredulous look. "Take it from someone who was briefly linked to their minds, and someone who has encountered an even advanced form in the future," said Rose. "They are very, very dangerous. You cannot kill them, not even with weapons that will reduce a Dalek to smithereens. They are incredibly strong and are capable of bleeding entire planets dry and torture and murder their population. There's only a dozen of them but they won't stop at just these eight planets if they are let loose."

Rose was breathing heavily as she finished, and her fists were clenched, remembering her narrow escape from them. The Doctor looked torn between believing her and the prospect of committing murder, possibly genocide, since those were the only ones of their race in existence.

"Grandfather, I am getting a transmission from the Time Lords," came Susan's worried voice.

The Doctor looked away from Rose. "What do they want now?" he snapped.

Susan shot him an admonishing look for his tone. "It's an alert asking all war TARDISes to destroy the Skaro Degradations. They speak of a possibility of the Skaro Degradations attacking Time Lord outposts if they are not stopped here. The devastation they describe..." Susan trailed off and shook her head.

"What do you mean 'possibility'?" asked Rose, confused.

"They must have seen it in the Matrix after the timelines changed," said the Doctor, his mind racing. "If they are indeed as dangerous as you and the Time Lords think they are, then trapping them in the void is our best chance."

"Except if the parallel worlds are sealed off, there isn't a way to create a breach in the void," said Rose.

"We could ask the Time Lords to create a localised breach, that's not a problem," said Susan quickly. "But how do we get the Skaro Degradations into that breach?"

"This will help," said the Doctor, holding up one of the two green dice that Androgar had given him for the delta waves. "It's keyed to the Skaro Degradations' molecular structure. If I am very clever, and I am very, very clever, I can reverse the polarity...actually, I'll forgo the technical jargon for now since we are short on time."

"I thought the void only attracted void stuff," said Rose, confused.

"The void stuff, as you call it, is a type of radiation and like all radiations, can infect hosts," said the Doctor with a bright gleam in his eyes. "All we need is a source, and I am sure the Time Lords…"

"If it's a source you need," said Rose and then waved at herself. "Been through the void so many times that I might as well be."

"Splendid," said the Doctor, though he did shoot her a curious look at the mention of travels through the void. "This delta wave has enough scope to encompass all eight planets and infect the Degradations. And then…"

"Like calls to like and they get sucked into the void," finished Rose triumphantly.

"Exactly!" said the Doctor, bouncing on his toes. "Except, we have to act very quickly before they scatter far enough to leave our range."

"Then you get started on the delta wave, Grandfather," said Susan, at once. "I'll go to Gallifrey and inform the Time Lords about creating a breach in the void."

"How will you get there?" asked Rose curiously.

"I have this," said Susan, holding up a Time Ring.

The Doctor's eyes narrowed. "Where did you get that?" he demanded. "I thought you weren't sent to Vermillion by the Time Lords."

"I wasn't," said Susan, averting her gaze. "Oh Grandfather, can't this wait?"

"It most certainly cannot," he said, rounding on her. "Whose orders are you following, Susan?"

"Nobody's," she said at once. At his look of disbelief, she shook her head bitterly. "I'd hoped you thought better of me than this, Grandfather. I shall ask the Time Lords for that breach…" she said as she disappeared.

The Doctor grit his teeth in frustration and turned back to the console. He could feel Rose's concerned gaze on him but he didn't want to face that either. He decided to focus on tweaking the delta wave.

A beacon lit up on the console and he read the message from the Time Lords telling them that they would be ready to create the breach whenever he was ready.

He turned to Rose. "Hold on to something," he said, plugging in the delta wave conduit into the console.

A low, whirring noise filled the TARDIS and Rose recognised the sound as being something that had echoed through her head when she had been in that telepathic chamber.

"Alright, give me your hand," said the Doctor, and waited until Rose placed her hand in his. He stuck something that looked like a clear square of plaster to her palm and took it off almost immediately before sticking it onto the green dice.

The whirr became louder and a triumphant smile graced the Doctor's face. "Is it working?" asked Rose, guessing the answer already but wanting to make sure.

"It is," he said. "And here comes the breach," he added and pulled a lever.

To Rose's immense surprise, the ceiling became transparent and they could see the eight planets projected in front of them. A blackness was growing behind them, and Rose's awe slowly transformed into confusion. "Doctor, what's happening?" she asked.

The Doctor was staring at the sight in horror, before he jumped into action. "Close the breach! Close it at once!" he shouted into the TARDIS communication systems. "Can anyone hear me? Shut it down at once!"

Rose felt a strange sense of numbness envelop her heart and she found herself unable to look away as the blackness converged on all of those eight planets, diminishing their bright glow until they all looked sickly grey. She could faintly hear the Doctor screaming at the Time Lords to stop the breach, but it was too late.

Within moments, the blackness had swallowed all of the planets and left only dark space in its wake. The Doctor fell silent, and Rose slowly looked down at him.

"What happened?" she asked, hating how hoarse her voice had gone. "What went wrong?" she demanded, her voice getting stronger.

"Nothing," he said, looking pale with disbelief. "It should have only affected the Skaro Degradation, not the people or the planets themselves."

"How-how many people did we just murder?" asked Rose, her voice trembling with anger. "Doctor," she said sharply when he didn't answer.

"Twenty two billion, give or take," he murmured through stiff lips. "Eight whole planets…"

Rose felt her knees about to give away and she sat down on the stuffed jumpseat next to the console, before she could collapse. "Can we change it?" she asked, knowing the answer already.

"No," he said, and he sounded angry now. "They are gone. Trapped in the void forever. Or until it apparently dies out, according to your bright knowledge," he added bitingly.

Rose shot to her feet and glared at him, realising that he was lashing out but was unable to stop herself from retaliating just the same. "Don't you dare," she snapped. "You have no idea what you are even talking about."

"Enlighten me then," he said, rounding on her, his eyes flashing in anger.

"It is the future. I can't tell you," she said, equally angrily.

"That seems to be your excuse for everything," he said cruelly. "Well, congratulations Rose Tyler, your mistake just led to the deaths of twenty two billion people." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, his eyes widened. "Rose, I did not mean…"

"Yeah, you did mean that," said Rose, having gone pale at his words. "I must have got it wrong, and I am the reason why those people are dead."

The Doctor walked around the console until he was standing right in front of her. "Something in the delta waves or my calculations must have been wrong," he said. "It wasn't your fault, I promise you, Rose. It was mine."

"It was neither, actually," came Susan's voice from the TARDIS communication systems.

"Explain," ordered the Doctor as he and Rose turned to the console together.

"The Time Lords filtered the delta wave remotely from Gallifrey," said Susan. "They did not want to take any chances. Grandfather, I tried to stop them…"

The Doctor turned off the transmission and flopped down onto the jumpseat with his head in his hands. Rose's eyes softened as she sat down next to him and touched his arm tentatively.

He stiffened at her touch before relaxing a little. "I am tired, Rose," he said, looking up at the ceiling where the empty sky was still visible. "Tired of seeing what people are capable becoming." Rose didn't know what to say to that, but the Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out her ring. "I saw the inscription inside it," he said and ignored it when Rose stiffened a little. "My name and yours bound in a symbol signifying union, made by my own hand unless I am mistaken."

Rose sighed and took the ring from him, wearing it back on her left ring finger. "It isn't quite so simple," she said.

"Tell me anyway," he pleaded. "I need to know. I need to know that something good comes out of all this."

Rose felt compassion well in her heart and she inhaled deeply. "I still don't think it's a good idea but I'll try and tell you all that I can. Just, promise to hear me out and not interrupt until I am done," she added beseechingly.

He met her earnest gaze for a moment before nodding. "Alright," he said.

Rose nodded back gratefully and took another deep breath before beginning. "I was nineteen when we met. I was a shop girl in London, early twenty-first century. We travelled together for a while, almost a year but it could have been more," she smiled a little. "It's always hard to tell with the TARDIS. Anyway, we arrived at this place called the Game Station which was being attacked by...these very powerful enemies of yours to control the Earth and build an army. They were going to win, and we would have died, but you sent me away with the TARDIS."

The Doctor stared at her in shock and almost defied her request of silence to ask a barrage of questions, but then nodded slowly and waited for her to continue.

"I didn't like it," she said with a bitter chuckle, grateful for his silence. "Couldn't just leave you to die like that. So, I...opened the heart of the TARDIS." She heard his sharp gasp and met his gaze for an instant before looking down at the ring on her hand. "I looked into the TARDIS and the TARDIS looked into me," her voice was flat as she said it, and out of the corner of her eyes, she saw the Doctor tense. "I destroyed the enemies, but the power of the vortex was too much. It was killing me, so you took it out of me. You had to regenerate immediately afterwards, but we both missed the fact that some remnant of the vortex had remained inside me."

She had to pause for a moment before continuing. "We continued our travels in the TARDIS as usual. We, um, went from friends to uh, more," she went a little pink and avoided his gaze entirely, trying not to remember the blissful months after Krop Tor when she and the Doctor had finally become lovers. She cleared her throat and focused on the present. "Then, there was a war," she said, her voice hitching slightly. "We won but I was trapped in a parallel world with no way back. The walls were sealed. I can't tell you why," she said hastily when he opened his mouth.

He closed it and nodded at her to go on. She sighed again and twirled her ring around her finger. "I wanted to find a way back, naturally," she said. "I had my mum and the parallel version of my dad with me, and they had a son too, but I knew I had to come back. I worked for this organisation that my dad ran, called Torchwood, and we built this dimension cannon to seek travel between universes. It didn't work for a long time, until suddenly it did. An old enemy was trying to destroy all of reality and the walls between universes had been weakened. It was what killed the void."

They both flinched at the mention of the void, and were silent for a few moments before Rose gathered enough nerve to continue.

"Anyway, I travelled between universes, trying to find you as well as finding a way to stop all of reality from being destroyed," she said. "I found you, but you were shot. Instead of regenerating, however, you used the energy to heal yourself and siphoned the rest of it into a living biological receptacle." She felt his questioning gaze, and smiled a little. "It was your hand that you'd lost in a sword fight soon after regenerating. It grew back and all, but it didn't half creep me out." Even he smiled a little at that. "You had a friend. She was so amazing, and she touched that hand causing…"

"An instantaneous biological metacrisis," he said, breaking his silence in shock as the puzzle pieces began to make sense. "Sorry," he said when Rose raised her eyebrows at him.

She waved his apology away. "Yeah," she nodded. "Another Doctor, but with one heart. When the enemies were dealt with and all, the full Time Lord Doctor decided that the metacrisis Doctor and I would be happy together and dropped us off in the parallel world. Didn't exactly give either of us a choice," she said bitterly and looked away. "But I loved him and he loved me, and we were so ready to spend the rest of our life together. He was the Doctor, in every way possible, just with one heart instead of two. And we were so, so happy," her eyes filled with tears. "We eloped only a month after being left in the parallel world and started to grow our TARDIS coral so that we could continue running through time and space as always."

She stopped then and wiped away her tears and the Doctor felt himself reaching for her before he stopped himself. He didn't think she would appreciate his touch. Instead, he waited patiently for her to compose herself and continue.

"It happened about five years after we were married," said Rose, her voice sombre now. "It was the most mundane thing ever, but he forgot our anniversary. I didn't think much of it, because god, he could be so absent-minded. But then it was other things as well. Forgetting appointments, meals, small things which progressively got worse. Then the blackouts started and we finally did a few scans. The doctors thought it was early onset of Alzheimer's but we both knew different. The metacrisis was failing and the Doctor's mind was not strong enough to sustain it. The TARDIS coral started weakening without him and without that link to sustain him, the deterioration accelerated. I could see them both dying away slowly, and there was nothing I could do to help either one of them."

Rose started sobbing at this point, accepting the handkerchief that the Doctor gave her to blow her nose.

"Around the same time, I found out that my aging had almost stopped. The vortex remnant had been changing me slowly all these years, and those frequent trips through the void had only strengthened the Artron and Huon particles in my system," she sniffed again before continuing. "The Doctor died a year after his symptoms first started. He spent his last days using the TARDIS coral to enhance that vortex manipulator so I could find a way back, or at least, get away from Earth before people started asking too many questions. He begged me to leave, but I couldn't abandon him, no matter what. He could barely recognise me in the final weeks, and it got so painful to watch him wither away like that, but I didn't leave him. I stayed until the end."

The Doctor stayed quiet as Rose sobbed into the handkerchief and felt his hearts clench with sorrow for her. Then, he remembered the scars she bore and he realised that her story was about to take a turn for the worse. Rose didn't notice his paleness or his stiff posture before she continued.

"The Doctor asked to be cremated, like the Time Lords, and we arranged for his ashes to be scattered into space. We were driving back from the shuttle base back to London and there was a particularly icy part of the road. I was in the car behind my parents and my brother, when everything went dark. I later discovered that Torchwood had ambushed us, sending the first car crashing off the hill, killing my parents and my little brother," she sniffed again, and took a deep breath before continuing. "They were careful not to harm me. Not that time at least," she said bitterly.

Her hands trembled lightly, and yet again the Doctor felt an incredible urge to comfort her, especially since he could guess what had happened next. He stopped himself once again, and waited for her to continue.

"They had this...facility under Torchwood Tower," she said, her voice almost mechanical now. "I don't know if my dad or the few friends I had in Torchwood knew about it. I hope every day that they had no idea what was going on in there. I wasn't the only test subject nor was I the first one." Her voice shook as she continued. "It wasn't so bad at first. Blood samples mostly, to see why I wasn't aging. Then, they noticed how quickly I was healing from their serums and things. It got worse after that. They had salvaged a quantic reanimator on one of their raids, and they'd just found an ideal subject to test it on."

The Doctor inhaled sharply at the mention of the vile device. It explained the scars on her. Quantic reanimator was a temporal device, one of the worst of its kind. It allowed its subject to be killed in any way possible before the temporal shift righted itself to a time before the subject was killed, making it "alive" again as if nothing had ever happened. Except, the scars remained as a reminder of the "death" that the subject had suffered.

Rose smiled bitterly at his gasp. "Guess you know what that is then," she said. "Don't think I have ever died so many times without actually dying. Shot, poisoned, starved, stabbed, you name it and it's been done. I wish I could say I lost track of time, but time was the one thing I never forgot. It was five years, seven months and thirteen days and I remember every second of it. It became a game to them. Watching me die in agony over and over, and then bringing me back to life to start all over again."

The Doctor could feel his rage simmering under the surface but he forced himself to tamp it down so that he could listen to her continue. Regardless, his fists clenched tightly, which Rose noticed but ignored.

"It was an ordinary day when I escaped," she said, her trembling became worse. "I was being carved to pieces when I went numb. It terrified me, because I thought I was dying. You'd think I'd be glad to die after having all of that happen to me, but I couldn't let myself die. I couldn't just give up. The next thing I remember is this golden heat and when I woke up, I was alone. I was still in my cell and the torture instruments were still there, but everyone in there…" her breath hitched and she let her face fall into her hands. "They had been turned to dust."

Stunned, the Doctor stared at her, unable to think of a single thing to say. Rose continued on before he got a chance to respond.

"It wasn't just the people who were holding me, but all those poor aliens and everybody else in Torchwood Tower. People who had no idea what was going on underneath them, people who were just coming in to work. I-I've never hated or scared myself more. So, I ran. Torchwood had kept my possessions safe, including the modified vortex manipulator, and I ran away from Earth as quickly as I could. I didn't even feel safe to return until nearly fifteen years had passed. I flew under the radar, used aliases and never drew attention to myself for nearly eight decades. Then, a group of Daleks found me on Trenzalore."

The Doctor hissed at the mention of that place, but Rose was too lost in her memories to register it.

"They wanted me to open a breach between the two universes. I couldn't do that, so I activated a failsafe on the vortex manipulator and caused an explosion. I thought it would kill me, but I woke up on Karn. Where I met you." She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly before raising her red-rimmed eyes to him. "And that's all."

The Doctor stayed silent, looking at the sorrow, fear and exhaustion in her eyes. He didn't know what to make of all the information that had been given to him. He had no doubts that everything she had told him was the truth, despite some of the stuff that she left out.

"I am sorry, Rose," he said finally. "For everything that happened to you."

She shook her head bitterly. "You are apologising for the wrong things," she said. "I will understand if you want me to leave."

He looked astonished. "Do you want to leave?" he asked.

"Well, no," she said, averting her gaze. "But you know what I did…"

"You were trying to survive and you had no control over it, Rose," he said.

"Doesn't make it right though, does it?" she asked, looking back at him with tears in her eyes.

"Doesn't make it wrong either," he said. "Rose, what you went through was terrible, and you reacted in self defense. It is similar to how a-a Time Lord would fight back if they had been backed into enough of a corner." At her questioning look, he sighed. "There was a reason why Morbius fed on the life force of Time Lords. It is an incredibly powerful energy and what you described may well have been the remnants of the vortex within your life force reacting to danger. You did what any other being does when faced with death and let your self-preservation kick in. You cannot keep blaming yourself for it."

Rose looked down at her hands and nodded slowly. "So, you are fine if I stay?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yes," he said. His eyes fell to her ring that she was fiddling with, and he went slightly pale. "Look, Rose, I…"

Rose followed his gaze and covered her ring with her other hand. "I didn't agree to tell you everything because I want you to be my husband, Doctor," she interrupted, her voice slightly cold. "My husband is dead, and I have mourned him. I do not expect, nor do I want you to be him."

"Then what do you want me to be, Rose?" he asked, feeling a little relieved.

She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. "A friend, comrade in arms, whatever you wanna call it," she said.

He waited for her to open her eyes and nodded slowly. "I think I can do that," he said.

Rose smiled a little and stood up. "Thank you," she said, turning to go back to her room.

"Rose!" called the Doctor and she turned around in question. "I have something in the medbay for getting rid of those scars. If you want, of course," he added hastily.

Rose stared at him for a few long moments before nodding quickly as fresh tears began to flow from her eyes. "Please," she said.

With a soft smile, the Doctor walked up to her and offered his hand. Rose placed her hand in hers and let him take her in the direction of the medbay.

There would be more questions to answer, and many things to mourn, but for now, Rose let the Doctor get those physical scars off her one at a time, with a gentleness that surprised her.

In the midst of chaos and death, it was a solitary moment of healing. For Rose, and perhaps even the Doctor.

* * *

**A/N Phew, that was exhausting. Let me know what you thought of it.**

**The next chapter will deal with the events that follow the Time Lords' actions. It will be up soon.**

**See you then!**


	10. Chapter Ten

**Disclaimer: Doctor Who belongs to the BBC. I do not own anything, nor do I get paid for it.**

**A/N Thank you for the wonderful response on the last chapter. I am so glad you liked it.**

**I was initially going to take a break before I posted this but since it was done, I am posting it before my birthday on the 27th. ****Spoilers for the Eighth Doctor Adventures.**

**Happy Reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Ten**

"There should have been another way," said Susan, pacing angrily. "Twenty two billion people is not just a number to be written off, Braxiatel."

Irving Braxiatel, known to everyone else as Cardinal Braxiatel, frowned at her. "It was not my decision, Arkytior," he said, ignoring her scowl for not addressing her by the Earth name she had chosen for herself. "The War Council…"

"Grandfather had it in hand!" interrupted Susan shrilly. "The Skaro Degradations would have been trapped into the void and the planets would have remained safe. Face it, Braxiatel, this had nothing to do with the War Council. These are Narvin's machinations."

Braxiatel raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting that Coordinator Narvin sanctioned the deaths of twenty two billion people for his own ends?" he asked, in a tone that suggested he had never heard anything so preposterous.

Susan bristled at the condescension in his voice. "Do not take me for a child, Braxiatel," she snapped. "Narvin and the CIA's goals are very well-known."

"You talk as if their goals are harmful," said Braxiatel, sitting up.

"If they are willing to go to such lengths for something so…"

"So what? Simple?" asked Braxiatel, glaring at her. "Nothing about this matter is simple. All previous efforts have failed. I personally…" he trailed off and glared at the floor for a few moments. "I may not approve of Narvin's methods," he said, with forced calm. "But I certainly approve of what he is trying to achieve. This war is nothing to be scoffed at, and if you do not approve, then you would do well to remember that it was you who came to me in the first place."

Susan glared at him and looked away. "I-I…"

"You did not expect this to be as bad as it really is," said Braxiatel, with some kindness. "Arkytior-Susan, I assure you, Narvin is doing what is best for Gallifrey and for all of us. You must have faith, child."

Susan's mouth twisted bitterly and she looked away to hide the tears brimming in her eyes. "I don't know if I can," she said in a low voice. "Vermillion was one of the planets sucked into the void. I personally spent an extended amount of time there. I knew people on that planet, Braxiatel."

"Attachments are not good for us, Arkytior," said Braxiatel calmly, though with no apparent sympathy. "You need to learn how to separate your emotions from your work. This is not a time for weakness."

Susan chuckled without humour. "Oh, how easy you make it sound, Braxiatel. I would rather cut off an arm than turn into an unfeeling monster that all Time Lords seem to be becoming," she said.

Braxiatel stood up, the anger on his face making Susan flinch a little. "I have matters to attend to," he said in a barely restrained voice. "You should reconsider whether you wish to associate with this war, Arkytior, and decide where your loyalties lie. Good day."

He turned around and stalked off, leaving Susan alone with her thoughts.

* * *

Rose examined her nude form in the full length mirror and prodded softly at the violently pink skin. The Doctor had healed the scars and then showed her to an enormous water tank that he said contained sentient water from Davidia known for its healing properties.

Three hours ago, he had left her inside it so that her newly repaired skin could heal properly. Rose had a vague memory of being immersed in the water but everything had gone blissfully blank after that. The timer had gone off after three hours and the water had drained out of the tank, leaving the door open for Rose to step out. She hadn't felt so calm in her life, but she knew it had little to do with her peace of mind and more with the slight sensory deprivation that was the effect of the Davidian water.

Her skin was still a little too pink and sore but the Doctor had told her that she would be fine. She couldn't bring herself to put on her heavy clothes just yet so she picked up the soft fleece robe that the TARDIS seemed to have left for her and hissed slightly as she put it on. When she returned to her room, she saw a tall glass of cool water and a small saucer with six tiny cubes the size of sugar cubes but in different colours waiting on the bedside table.

The Doctor had left a note telling her to eat each of the cubes and finish the whole glass of water before she got some sleep. Rose had been planning to sleep straight away but the mention of food reminded her how hungry she was, and despite not knowing what the cubes were, she picked up the bright red one first and tasted it cautiously. It didn't have a taste, and it rather felt like she was eating warm ice. With a shrug, she finished it off and followed it up with the other cubes, getting surprised when she started feeling rather full by the fourth cube. She finished the last two off and drank the water greedily. Her stomach now full, she was reminded of how exhausted she was, and she took off the robe and snuggled under her covers.

She was asleep within moments.

* * *

The Doctor had not moved the TARDIS from the sight of the carnage just yet. He was running diagnostics on the area, hoping despite what he had told Rose that there was a way to fix it. He didn't expect anything to turn up but he was doing it more for his sanity than anything else.

He toyed with the comm. link to Gallifrey, going over a thousand and one conversations he wanted to have with the Time Lords but realised the futility of such actions. He doubted there was anything he could say to them that would make a difference. In a rare moment of self-loathing, he wished that he was still like his previous self who would have commended the Time Lords' actions. Even now there was a part of him glad that the Skaro Degradations had been eliminated completely. Eight planets and twenty two billion people was a small price to pay in the larger scheme of things.

His mouth twisted in a snarl and he turned away from the console in anger. He was the Doctor, not Time's Champion. Not anymore. He had promised himself a clean beginning when he had regenerated into this life. No more the chessmaster or the man with the plan. Just the Doctor. The man who made people better.

Except, he had failed even at that. His companions, oh, he had lost so many of them. Try as he might, he could not bring himself to forget their faces nor the horrible fates that they had suffered. All because of him. Those that hadn't been killed, had been driven away by his terrible actions and he had no one to blame but himself. He thought of Charley and C'Rizz, of his years on Orbis, of Lucie Miller and Tamsin Drew and Alex Campbell, of Molly O'Sullivan and Liv Chenka, and he hated himself just a little bit more.

Then, he thought of Rose and his thoughts darkened with the future that he would no doubt be responsible for condemning her to. He could not be certain how much of it would change now, but the fact remained that it had all happened for her already, and he had a nasty suspicion that with how tenuous time already was, it would be difficult to change. For her sake, he hoped she got a kinder future than what she had suffered through.

A bright blue beacon lit up on the console and his eyes turned towards it. The diagnostics had yielded something and it was with surprise in his hearts that he typed in to see the results for himself. What he read made him pause, horror fighting with disbelief as the evidence was clear as day in front of him.

Eight planets had been sucked into the void, but something else had got out. Something quite dangerous.

* * *

Rose awoke, feeling slightly disoriented when she realised that she had been asleep for a very long time. With how hectic things had been lately, physically and emotionally, she knew she had been exhausted but fourteen hours of sleep was still new for her. She winced when her back cracked as she got out of the bed. The pinkness of her skin had faded and she got dressed in a pair of loose jeans and a long sleeved shirt out of habit before padding barefoot out of her room to look for the Doctor.

He wasn't in the console room, the kitchen or the library. Rose picked up an apple from the kitchen and munched on it as she looked for the Doctor. The TARDIS was quiet, her ever present hum sounding subdued. After exploring the first few doors in the hallway, Rose started to get a little worried. The TARDIS seemed to be leading her back to the console room and after the three doors she tried opened into the console room, Rose got the message and stepped into the console room.

It was still devoid of the Doctor and the controls were beeping away quietly. Rose checked the monitor to see where they were and was surprised to see that they had landed somewhere called Pazithi Gallifreya. Puzzled, Rose tried the door which opened onto a light coppery surface with breathable atmosphere that seemed devoid of life. Rose turned back to the empty console room and ran to the controls. To her surprise, the TARDIS was conducting scans on Pazithi Gallifreya, which she realised was one of the moons of Gallifrey.

She was debating whether to fetch her shoes and go in search of the Doctor when a beep indicated that the scans had been finished. Rose read the results and felt a chill shoot up her spine. There was only a single life sign on Pazithi Gallifreya, her own. Apart from her and the TARDIS, there was nothing else there.

* * *

The Doctor groaned lightly and tried to open his eyes that felt far too heavy. He had to blink a few times but the darkness did not disappear. He almost began to panic before he realised that his sight was just fine, and the unnatural darkness came from his surroundings. It didn't appease him for long though, since there were very few kinds of darkness that his superior eyesight could not see past, and he did not like the implications one bit.

He tried to feel around but the space around him felt empty. He was almost certain that he was on the floor, but the temperature gave no indication of where he was. The smell was oddly familiar though, and he was reminded of the seaside. There was no sound of water but as soon as he thought that, he heard the sound of a wave breaking over the rocks. Startled, he sat up straighter and realised that the smell of the ocean was getting stronger as well. The darkness remained as resolute as ever, but the ocean seemed very close now, almost like he was on the beach.

He felt something digging into the hand that he had pressed to the ground and as he pulled away, he realised that there was now sand below him. He could smell seaweed and the texture of the sand under him was more tangible than ever. It was as if the more he thought about something, the clearer it started to feel for him. The darkness remained steady and he was abruptly reminded of being trapped in the Divergent universe with Charley and the way they had walked through the tube for weeks and weeks without their senses.

Abruptly, the blackness transformed into the blinding white light from that time and he realised that he had stood up without realising. Unlike before, he was still alone, though he could faintly smell Charley's perfume. As he focused on the scent, it intensified until he felt like he would pass out from the overpowering fragrance. The smell disappeared abruptly and he was left in the whiteness again and he felt a stab of fear in his hearts. His thoughts were being manipulated into reality in a way that should not be possible. He couldn't remember how he had come to be where he was, and with it came a chilling realisation that he had no sense of how much time had passed.

For a Time Lord, losing their sense of time was akin to losing a limb and the Doctor could feel his panic building when he realised that he could not feel how time was passing or whether it was passing at all. Almost as an answer to his panic, he felt calm settle over him. His time sense was still gone but he wasn't feeling as agitated as before. He opened his mouth, to scream or just to see if he could even scream but if he screamed, he didn't hear it. He couldn't be sure if he was making a sound and wasn't hearing it, or he was simply unable to make the sound.

Unnerved, he tried to move his hands. He wasn't tied up, he was certain of it, but if he was moving his hands, he couldn't feel them anywhere. He remembered that he had felt sand digging into his hands before and he crouched to the ground and touched his hands to the ground but there was nothing there. He was numb, with all or most of his senses gone.

His mind was still working, but he was not sure if it really was working or if he was just thinking that it was. _It would be easy enough to decide_, he realised. He just had to think of who he was and he would know that his mind was still working. The thought comforted him and he waited for it to come to him.

_Who was he again? He had to have a name. Everyone had a name, didn't they? Did he have a name? Was he called something? Anything?_

Frustration grew within him when he couldn't remember. The closest he could come to was that he was a...no, he had remembered his species when he'd realised that he had lost one of his vital senses. He couldn't remember it anymore, nor could he remember his planet. He had to have come from somewhere and had to belong to some race in the universe. He had to have a home.

The whiteness began to dissipate and he focused on his surroundings. The smell of ocean came back in full force and he realised that he was in a thatched hut on the side of a beach. He could see the ocean through the open door and the machinery inside his hut which rather looked like a half-built spaceship. His hands were holding a spanner and he was apparently in the middle of fixing the spaceship.

"Old Doctor! Old Doctor, are you there?"

_Doctor_, he realised with a start. That was what he was called. He was called the Doctor. Of what, he wasn't sure but it was a start. He focused on the voice and saw a floating jellyfish coming towards him.

_Selta_. The name came to him very easily and he wondered if he knew her.

"Old Doctor, I am so glad I found you," said Selta, sounding a little breathless even for her jellyfish-like body.

"I'm not old," he said automatically. "What do you want?"

Selta paused for a moment. "Don't you remember me, old Doctor? It's me, Selta. From Orbis. Do you not remember me?"

He did remember, he realised. Selta was a Keltan from the planet Orbis and he was helping her people fight against the Molluscari who were waiting to consume the Keltans. Except, all of this had already happened.

"You do remember, don't you old Doctor?" asked Selta. "Do you remember how you left us all to die?"

He flinched back as the breathy voice turned furious.

"The Molluscari fried us in front of you but you just left us to die, didn't you old Doctor?" asked Selta, her voice echoing around him. "You and your friend, Lucie, wasn't it? You just left us to die."

"Oh, don't worry!" came a Northern voice and he flinched again when he recognised it.

"Lucie," he breathed as she appeared next to Selta. She had her arms crossed over her chest and legs in those awful contraptions that served to keep her upright.

"He left me to die too," said Lucie, her eyes blazing in anger as she looked to the Doctor. "First, he didn't come as I lost my sight in one eye and use of both me legs. Then, he stood by and watched me blow myself up."

"Is that what you do, old Doctor?" asked Selta. "Do you leave your friends to die?"

He opened and closed his mouth, hoping for words that wouldn't come.

"Nothin' to say?" mocked Lucie. "Hear that, Alexander the Great? Your beloved grandfather's got nothing to say…"

"I can't say I am surprised," said Alex as he appeared behind Lucie. "He abandoned mum first, before anyone else. What do you expect from a man who abandons his own granddaughter?"

"You are dead!" snapped the Doctor, surprising himself how loud his voice had become. "You are all dead! This is an illusion!"

"Hark at him!" laughed Lucie. "It's an illusion, it isn't real," she mocked.

"A place for the dead then, is it? My invite must have got lost," came another familiar voice and the Doctor's hearts went cold.

"Charley," he breathed. "No, Charley, you were alive…"

The blonde Edwardian adventuress laughed. "Was I alive, Doctor? Or was I always supposed to be dead? You took that away from me, remember? You took away my death from me and then you tormented with it," she said. "You couldn't even let me die like I was supposed to, for your own selfish needs."

"Don't know which is worse really," commented Alex casually.

"I'll tell you what's worse," said a new voice as Tamsin Drew walked up to them. "Being shot by a Dalek and dying for no reason at all. My death served no purpose. I died begging and crying. All because of you, Doctor!"

"Enough!" yelled the Doctor. "This is not real! I refuse to let whatever is holding me manipulate my memories and disrespect my friends."

"Such ego, eh Doctor?" said Lucie dryly. "Have you considered that maybe you are not a captive of anything?"

"Yes, maybe you are simply having a talk with your conscience," said Charley brightly.

The Doctor glared angrily. "Oh, no, no, no, something is definitely holding me," he said. He raised his eyes to the ceiling he couldn't see and shouted angrily. "Do you hear me? I won't be swayed by some conjured up memories meant to build guilt into my hearts!"

He got no reply but when he looked back down, he was alone once again. It had gone dark but he could see now that he was in a tiny cell with bars on his doors. With a grim sense of satisfaction, he sat down on the hard bed in his cell. "Come on then, now that the mind games are over, it is time to face me," he shouted. "Show yourself!"

There was absolute silence before he heard giggling. He sat up a little and peered into the darkness past the bars on his cell door. It sounded like a child, a very young child.

"Who's there?" he snapped.

The giggling got louder. "Who's there?" asked a childish voice that he couldn't know if it belonged to a boy or a girl. "Who's there, who's there, who's there, who's there…?"

"Stop!" he snapped, starting to feel dizzy at the echoing that followed the voice.

The child giggled again. "Stop, stop, stop, stop, who's there, stop, who's there…?"

The Doctor growled but the mocking and giggling stopped suddenly as the child spoke with almost a chilled sense of calm.

"You are mine, mine, mine now! Mine to play, mine, all mine," said the child, in a sing-song voice. "Been alone, alone, alone for so long. Mine now! Mine, mine, all mine. Sleep now, sleep, sleepy sleep sleep…"

The Doctor started to feel dizzy and the heaviness fell over him again, reminding him of the state that he had woken up in. Before he could ponder more upon it, sleep had taken him over.

* * *

Rose was going out of her mind with worry. The Doctor had been missing for three days and she was no closer to finding out where he was than she was three days ago. With a growl, she banged her fist on the console. Efforts to trace the Doctor had turned up useless and she was getting desperate. The comm. link to Gallifrey was mocking her and she remembered each of the times that she had reached for it, only to be reminded that she didn't need their sort of help.

But three days had passed now, and she was getting desperate. _Desperate times called for desperate measures_, she decided and pressed the comm. link to open communication to Gallifrey.

"This is Rose Tyler calling from the Doctor's TARDIS. If someone can hear me, I need help…"

* * *

He was woken up as he always with the sound of ringing cloister bells in his ears. He had no idea how many days had passed or how long it had been. He had a vague memory of hearing Charley, or was it Lucie, talking to him. Then someone had sung him a lullaby. Yes, he remembered falling asleep to a lullaby. He liked the lullaby, it reminded him of being happy.

And he was happy. He was so happy. He did not know his name or where he came from, but he was so, so happy. He wanted to be here. He wanted to play. He only wanted to play. He was happy and he wanted to play.

The darkness died down slightly and he heard laughter. He decided that it was his laughter, because he was happy. Only he could laugh and play and be happy.

_NO_

The sharp thought slapped him into focus. He was the Doctor, he was a Time Lord. He was _not_ happy. He was a prisoner of this thing that took delight in tormenting him. He had been here for a few days at least, but since he hadn't regained his time sense yet, he couldn't be certain.

Every time, he would be woken up with cloister bells, not remembering who or where he was. Sometimes he would see his friends, sometimes he would be alone. The creature that was holding him continued to elude him, though he did hear it once in a while. Its chilling voice would call to him, and the Doctor shivered in terror when he remembered the hypnotic hold the creature seemed to have on him.

He had fought it off each time so far but he wasn't sure how long he could hold out for. He did not know what it wanted from him, nor what it looked like. Every time he refused, he would hear the lullaby and he would go to sleep. And then it would start all over again.

The Nightmare Child did not like to take no for an answer.

* * *

**A/N End of chapter. Let me know what you thought.**

**The new chapter will be up soon, as the official Time Lords make an appearance, not just the renegades. See you then!**


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